Understanding Your Hearing Test Results

According to the National Institute of Hearing Loss, approximately 40 million people in the United States experience issues with their hearing. However, many may not see a hearing health professional to assess their needs to understand their hearing issues.

This can often be attributed to a sense of anxiety – after all, a formal diagnosis for hearing loss feels a lot more serious than saying you’re struggling to follow along with a conversation. However, receiving a diagnosis is integral when it comes to improving your life moving forward, as it gives you the chance to monitor your hearing loss. Despite this, many people continue to feel overwhelmed after scheduling a hearing test, as they don’t understand what the results mean.

If you’ve recently been diagnosed with hearing loss or have received the results of a hearing test, a hearing health professional can help you to understand the results of your hearing test and what it means for your next steps.

What is Actually Being Tested During Hearing Tests?

Different hearing tests are designed to detect different issues relating to your hearing health. For example, a pure-tone test is designed to determine the lowest volume and frequency sound you can hear. Additionally, these tests can examine how well you understand speech in different environments which can simulate real-life situations. A hearing test can also measure how well both of your ears work together to process sound. Ask your hearing health professional about which hearing tests they will conduct and what they will be testing for. As this can help you to understand the results of your hearing test.

What Do the Results of My Hearing Test Mean?

If you are unfamiliar with this terminology, an audiogram is a report that charts hearing loss by identifying how loud sounds need to be in order for you to hear them. In short, it contains the results of your pure-tone test. Ideally, you’d want your audiogram to feature a steady line at the hearing threshold levels – and any variation away from this suggests some form of hearing loss.

Again, your hearing care provider will be able to discuss this with you in more detail and will be able to explain the severity of hearing loss you are experiencing. Typically, hearing loss is split into four categories:

• Mild hearing loss.
• Moderate hearing loss.
• Severe hearing loss.
• Profound hearing loss.

After your hearing health professional has explained what your test results mean, you should research your diagnosis carefully, so that you understand the condition, its symptoms and the impact it has on your life overall. This will enable you to make more considered decisions moving forward, such as necessary lifestyle changes and the type of hearing aids you may need. For example, you may want to start wearing hearing aids as part of your daily routine, which can help in improving the sounds around you, while blocking out unnecessary background noises.

If you want to learn more about the different hearing tests, what your results mean or what the best treatment is for your needs, contact your hearing health professional.