Audiologist hearing test is a procedure during which the hearing ability is examined. You should overcome a hearing test at least once in a year if you are 50 or more, or if you are younger but experience certain difficulties and changes in the way you perceive outer sounds.

The first signs that you might appoint an audiologist hearing test are: long term pain in your ears, feeling constant noise in your ears (also known as tinnitus), indications of hearing loss, fluid discharge coming out of your ears, dizziness and similar medical issues.

How Are Audiologist Hearing Tests Performed

The type of hearing test that will be performed to you mainly depends on the degree of hearing damage and medical issue you are experiencing. Based on your hearing damage or hearing loss symptoms the audiology specialist will determine what type of hearing test and the number of steps you should undergo.

Ways of Performing an Audiologist Hearing Test

Visual Examination of the Ears

The visual examination of the ears is performed with a special tool known as otoscope or auriscope. It is an instrument that examines your inner ear visually and displays the results on a special monitor. The hearing issues and the causes for them that can be discovered with otoscope include:

• Ear wax or foreign blockages of the sounds in your inner ear;
• Infected or uninfected fluid present in your middle ear;
• Issues in the work of the Eustachian;
• Eardrum damages or infections.

Pure Tone Air-Conduction Audiologist Hearing Test

During this hearing test, the patient is placed in a quiet room, in a sitting position and with earphones. On the earphones the patient hears sounds with different frequencies. The test begins with sounds with higher frequencies. As the test continues the intensity of the sounds is gradually reduced. When the patient perceives the tones he/she presses a button and stops when he/she is unable to hear the tones anymore. The results of the test are further displayed on a audiogram. The audiogram gives concrete information about patient’s hearing ability.

Speech Hearing Test

This is a type of audiologist hearing test during which patient’s hearing ability is tested upon speech. Similiar to the pure tone air-conduction audiologist hearing test, the speech hearing test is performed in quiet room and with earphones. The difference here is that the patient doesn’t hear sounds but speech, often concomitant with certain level of noise in the background.