Sunday, November 17, 2013

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.

Throughout this test, headphones will be placed over your ears, so that any other sounds will be completely blocked out as needed. Soon after that, various sounds will be sent into each one of your ears to find out where the loss actually is. After all, there are some cases wherein the hearing loss is only experienced in one ear as opposed to in both.

Most of the time, these sounds will also come in at various kinds of frequencies or levels, as well. This is done to find out whether you can hear low sounds or high sounds or whether you can hear various sounds at all. To gauge your level of hearing, your specialist might ask for you to raise a finger or a hand on the side of whichever ear the sounds seem to be coming from for you.

You should notice some sounds getting louder and getting more faint. Other times, you might not hear sounds at all, but this would be completely normal. However, you doctor will need to know just how low of a sound you can actually hear.

After all, your doctor will use the information from this test to figure out how to treat your hearing problems. The information derived from this test will also decide whether you still need more evaluations before moving to proper treatments. This is why it would be absolutely vital to be honest when it comes to this test. In other words, make sure you answer all of the questions honestly and accurately, no matter what.

The good news is that you can learn a lot about your hearing problems just by going through an audiometer test. Once your hearing levels have been properly gauged by it, your specialist can then give you the right treatment for your condition in no time or put you through more tests as needed.




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