Hearing loss can affect anyone and often progresses so gradually, it can be difficult to notice until you experience symptoms. Hearing loss has far-reaching effects on your health, so getting a baseline hearing test and annual follow-up tests can help you catch it early.
The purpose of a test for hearing loss is to determine not only if you have a hearing loss, but how mild or severe it is. A thorough hearing test can also help define the type of hearing loss you have: conductive, sensorineural or mixed and whether it will respond best to medical treatment, hearing aids , bone-anchored hearing systems or cochlear implants.
When you visit the hearing clinic for the first time, office staff will have you fill out a case history form. This paperwork asks you a series of questions to help the hearing healthcare professional better understand your medical and hearing history and health. There are many potential causes of hearing loss , so the case history helps determine if you could have anything inherited or genetic in your family.
Medical conditions like allergies, head colds, ear infections and even impacted earwax cerumen can also contribute to hearing loss. Any kind of injury to the cranial area can result in temporary or permanent hearing damage. Your hearing healthcare professional may also ask about your exposure to loud noises or if you work in a loud environment.
Noise-induced hearing loss is very common in our sound-filled world. Finally, your hearing health professional might want to discuss the symptoms you are experiencing and how they are affecting your daily life. They will want to understand your lifestyle and the types of work, hobbies and social situations that are important to you.
Keep in mind that hearing loss can be exhausting , so even problems like fatigue might be related. Regardless of your age or job, you should get a hearing test if you or a loved one feel like you're not hearing as well as you used to. Those most at risk of hearing loss are people older than 60, and workers in high-noise occupations, such as construction or restaurants.
Here's how to know if you need your hearing tested. If you've already had confirmed hearing loss through testing, then you should speak to your hearing care practitioner about how often you should get re-tested.
Much like vision, hearing can change over time, and hearing aids also need periodic adjustments. Hearing tests are painless and non-invasive. Most occur in a quiet, sound-treated room booth or enclosure designed to keep out any other noises which might affect your hearing exam scores, such as the heater, air conditioner or office environment. You will be asked to wear headphones or soft earplugs with wires connected to an instrument called an audiometer that is used to conduct the test.
The room may also be equipped with specially-placed speakers used for testing infants, small children or people who need to be tested while wearing hearing aids or cochlear implants. This part of a hearing test usually involves pure-tone audiometry, which includes listening to tones at different pitches and volumes. It occurs in a sound-treated room. Your hearing care professional will communicate with you and provide instructions through your headphones.
You will have to focus and listen carefully because you need to respond even if the tone sounds very soft and you can barely hear it.
The test measures the very softest sounds you can hear at each frequency tested. Speech audiometry is another component of most hearing tests, and it uses recorded or live speech instead of pure tones, in a quiet setting.
The speech portion of the exam evaluates the softest speech sounds threshold you can hear and understand. You will then be asked to repeat back words that are presented at a level well above threshold to see how well you can understand them accurately. Some practitioners use speech sounds to determine your most comfortable listening level and the upper limits of comfort for listening.
Most people complain about how they hear in noisy environments—not quiet sound-treated rooms! You may take one or more of these tests. During these tests you will listen to a speaker say words and statements while a soundtrack plays increasingly noisy sounds. After you receive your hearing aids, you may take a similar test to fine-tune the amplification levels on your aid.
If necessary, the practitioner may perform tympanometry and a test of your acoustic reflexes. For these tests, a soft plug that creates pressure changes and generates sounds will be placed in the ear.
This will determine how well your eardrum is moving and will measure the reflexive responses of the middle ear muscles. Sharim discovers any hearing loss. There are various types of hearing loss with a range of causes. The most common type is age-related hearing loss , which develops gradually as you age. Some other types of hearing-related problems include tinnitus ringing in the ears , misophonia negative reactions to everyday sounds , and hyperacusis sensitivity to sound.
Your check-up starts with a discussion about your medical history, the medications you take, and your history of exposure to loud sounds. You also receive a physical examination of your ears with a device known as an otoscope.
Using an otoscope, your audiologist can look for structural problems, eardrum damage, wax buildup, obstructions, or signs of infection that can interfere with your hearing. Next, you receive a hearing screening to determine whether you can hear a variety of different types of sounds.
If this preliminary test shows weaknesses in hearing, you receive in-depth hearing assessments and a hearing test to ascertain the full range of your hearing loss and to look for evidence of its cause. Further investigation can help determine whether you have a medical condition that may be contributing to your hearing loss.
You first get to sit down and discuss your hearing concerns with Dr. This first session is your opportunity to discuss your impression of your hearing issues — where in life does your hearing seem to be a problem? From quiet conversations and concerts, to grandkids and golf buddies, Dr. Tanner wants to learn about your specific hearing needs. Next up, the hearing exam itself — this is when it gets interesting! For the sounds, all you have to do is push a little button each time you hear a sound.
Next up is the word comprehension part of the exam. Tanner says a series of words and all you have to do is repeat the word you heard. All your answers are part of the assessment and honest answers alone make the exam a success! While having your hearing assessed, remember that this is for you and you alone.
No one at The Hearing Solution gets frustrated or annoyed at you, embarrassed or exasperated — feelings your hearing issues may have caused others in the past. We have assessed all levels of hearing loss, from mild to profound. And while our goal is not to compare you to others, we do know what works best in hearing assistance for specific types of people. The important thing is that you have made the right decision when you decided to get your hearing assessed by the experts at The Hearing Solution.
After you exit the amazing soundproof booth, you sit down with Dr. Tanner and discuss your results. The choices in technology and budget from Oticon, Widex, Unitron, and others will probably astound you! Call us at , use our simple request form on this website, or visit us at University Avenue, Suite , in Sacramento.
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