What Will Your Hearing Test Tell You?

Experiencing hearing loss affects more of the population than you may realize. But having a hearing test is simpler than it seems. By visiting your hearing care provider, you can find out whether you need a test, and how it can help.

What to Expect From a Hearing Test

To start with, your hearing health professional will formally introduce themselves to you, so you feel at ease in the environment you are in. They will next begin to describe exactly what will happen, in the specific order in which they will occur. So, the results can come out as accurately as possible, your healthcare provider will look into your ears, ensuring a clear pathway. If it is the case that your ear canal is blocked with wax, the test will not be able to continue.

After the introductions and initial physical examination, your healthcare provider will want an explanation as to when the hearing loss began or when you first picked up on some signs of deterioration. For example, your hearing healthcare provider may ask if the loss occurred over a gradual length of time or after a sudden event.

The test itself will involve a measurement of how sensitive your hearing is, when using the full expanded range of dialogue. In short, the test will involve small noises being played to you from headphones and the measurement of your responses to them. If you have heard the noises, you will be expected to respond in any way you choose, most likely a button press.

How is My Hearing Test Recorded?

Whether you can hear the sound played through the headphones is recorded on a graph called an audiogram. The volume of the noise will be measured in decibels and, as the test goes on, the decibels of the sounds increase. In relation to the decibels, frequency is additionally integral to the test. In this case, the frequency is measured in hertz, and goes from low to high as the volume increases.

What Will the Audiogram Tell Me?

To have normal hearing, is to hear clearly sounds which are in between 10 and 20 decibels. Hearing loss occurs when the sounds you cannot hear are louder than 20 decibels. The pattern of the graph works as the higher up the chart, the less hearing loss experienced.

To experience hearing loss in a mild range, is to hear between 21 and 40 decibels, whereas significant hearing loss occurs between 71 and 90 decibels. Generally, if the line on the chart is low, it is indeed a fact that you experience hearing loss.

Overall, to have a hearing test is not as momentous as one may think. Recorded in such a way that you will be easily able to interpret, there is no worry of confusing recordings and an inability to understand them. With the solutions to hearing loss following shortly behind, the hearing test is an option for understanding and getting to grips with your own hearing loss, your hearing healthcare professional will help you to understand your hearing!