The 411 On An Audiometer Hearing Test

By Allyson Burke


If you are starting to think that your hearing abilities aren't up to par to perfect standards, then an audiometer can help you test your levels of hearing. Generally speaking, though, doctors might use other tools to test your hearing abilities first, such as a basic screening or a tuning fork. Once they have a better understanding of what type of hearing loss you are facing, they may then request for a more in-depth evaluation of your ears.

This is where an audiometer would come in extremely handy. This test cannot just be done by any random doctor, though. In fact, a lot of the time, a specialist will be assigned to conduct this test on you. This specialist is called an audiologist and will guide you through every step of the way in order to help treat the problem at hand.

Throughout this screening, your doctor will thoroughly evaluate your hearing abilities. This is usually done through a series of tests as opposed to just one. During this time, the audiologist will ask different questions to collect as much information as possible in order to find out the causes behind your loss. He will then ask for a thorough explanation regarding your work and medical history, as well. After that, an actual hearing test will then be conducted.

During this test, you will have to wear headphones that fit well over your ears in order to block out sounds that come from outside of the room that you are in. After that, different sounds will go into your ears one by one. The aim of this test is to check each individual ear since loss may occur in a single ear or in both at the same time.

All of the sounds will go into your ears at different levels and frequencies. The aim of this is to find out whether you can actually hear those sounds and, if you do, where you can hear them. Your doctor might ask you to raise your hand whenever you hear a sound. You might be asked to raise the hand on whichever side of the body you can hear the sounds from, as well.

Sometimes, the sounds will be loud and other times, they will be faint. In other cases, there might not be any sounds at all, but don't worry too much when that happens. Doctors just need to find out which frequencies and levels you can hear properly when it comes to this.

The information taken from this will tell your doctor about the kind of potential hearing loss you might have. It may also pinpoint whether you are in need of more thorough evaluations of your hearing abilities. As such, you should take your sweet time when it comes to this test and make sure that you answer everything accurately instead of guessing things.

Fortunately, an audiometer hearing test can give your doctor a great deal of information overall regarding your current hearing levels. From there, you can then visit a specialist to provide you with helpful treatment options or more tests in order to receive more information regarding your comfort levels and the treatment decisions that have to be made in the end.




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