Hearing assessments

The whole point to a hearing test is for the audiologist to determine the extent of your hearing loss and the type of hearing loss you have. The extent of your hearing loss is determined by decibels based on pure tone frequencies of 500 to 4000mhz. You are said to have normal hearing when you can hear decibels ranging from 0 to 20 db HL with mild hearing loss around 20 to 40 db HL and severe hearing loss at 80 db HL or greater.

The type of hearing loss refers to either sensorineural, which is usually a permanent hearing loss due to trauma or disease, conductive which can be a temporary of permanent hearing loss due to abnormal conditions of the outer or middle ear or a mixture of both.

What does the assessment entail?

The entire test will consist of a battery of tests that compliment each other and all go towards determining the exact extent of your hearing loss and what if anything can be done to help you regain some hearing.

Questions the audiologist may ask you could be

• What difficulty are you having hearing?
• When did you first notice the difficulty?
• Does the hearing loss affect just one ear or the both of them?
• Has the problem occurred suddenly or over a period of time?
• Do you suffer from tinnitus?
• Have you had a history of ear infections or problems with your ears in the past?
• Do you have any pain or discharge from your ears?
• Do you have problems with dizziness or light-headedness?
• Is there any history of hearing problems in your family?
• Do you have trouble with certain voices for example can you hear a women’s voice better than you can a mans?
• Have people asked you not to shout when you’re talking?
• Do you have to frequently ask people to repeat themselves?
• Do you have a history of exposure to noise either in work or recreation?

The audiologist will check the outer ear, the inner ear and the middle ear for signs of any problems; they could also take measurements to give them a better insight into what is happening inside your ears. After they have run the complete battery of tests then they will then review each component in order to complete a profile on your hearing problem.

Depending on the findings they may suggest that you attend for further more specialised tests which could include assessments for hearing aids, listening devices, speech and language development and audiological rehabilitation.