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Many
methods have been developed to assess hearing
ability, but the most common and the most reliable
test has been the pure tone audiogram.
Earphones will be placed on your ears and you will
be asked to listen for a series of beeping tones
that sound rather like notes on a piano. You
will be asked to respond when you hear these sounds
by raising your hand or pushing a button. Your
audiologist will determine the softest volume that
you can hear for a variety of tones from very low to
very high pitched, and the results will be recorded
on a graph called an audiogram. The entire
test is performed in a quiet environment so that
your test results may be compared to what is normal
for human beings. You will also be asked to
repeat a series of one syllable words to determine
how well you understand what you hear.
Sometimes this test is repeated in the presence of
background noise.
The
entire evaluation takes about an hour and there is
no pain or discomfort involved. It simply
requires some concentration on your part. The test
results are used to determine your diagnosis and
which, if any, hearing instruments will be most
effective in correcting your hearing loss. |
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Dr. Aird conducting a hearing test |
