Hearing Test

Hearing plays a crucial role in how people communicate with each other across the globe. A hearing test acts as a simple check that measures how clearly you hear and understand different tones and voices. Early testing allows you to identify gradual changes before they begin to affect communication in daily life.

Whether for reassurance or early detection, an auditory test is useful to stay aware of your hearing health and to take necessary steps if required.

What Are Hearing Tests?

A hearing test refers to a medical assessment that measures how well you can hear different variations of sounds, pitches and volumes. This hearing evaluation includes various assessments, such as pure tone testing and speech audiometry, to identify if you have any hearing loss. 

The hearing check-up results help to determine the type and severity of hearing issues and guide you and audiologists to take further steps for treatment.

Importance of Regular Hearing Tests

Regular hearing screening plays a vital role in both prevention and diagnosis. Since the decline of auditory capabilities can be gradual and silent, staying on top of your hearing health acts as both a diagnostic and preventive measure. 

Untreated hearing conditions can lead to isolation, reduce work or social performance and may decline your cognitive abilities. Thus, routine hearing tests help audiologists to identify the type, severity and cause of any hearing issues and guide you to take appropriate steps.

Who Should Take a Hearing Test?

An ear test serves as an essential check to spot changes in your listening abilities. Now, let’s have a look at which group needs to be checked for hearing conditions:

• Adults: If you often need people around you to repeat themselves or have a family history of hearing loss, then you may need to schedule an auditory test.
• Senior Citizens (60 years of age and above): Elders may experience health conditions in the inner ear because of long-term exposure to loud noises as well as health conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure.
• Newborns and infants: Every baby should undergo newborn hearing tests before the first month of age, diagnostic evaluation before 3 months of age and enrollment in early intervention before 6 months of age.
• Children: An ear test may be needed if a child has delayed speech, frequent ear infections or experiences difficulty in hearing too often.

Why Should You Take a Hearing Test?

An ear hearing test brings the opportunity to understand how well you’re listening to your surroundings. With an ear screening, you can identify changes, plan treatment more effectively and maintain your ability to communicate with people.

Here are a few factors that necessitate taking an audio hearing test:

• Early diagnosis of hearing loss: An auditory test allows you to identify changes in your listening abilities before they become more severe.
• Better treatment planning: Being aware of the exact type and degree of hearing loss means audiologists can tailor solutions in a more precise way.
• Improves communication and relationships: Addressing hearing issues early can help you to avoid any misunderstandings, reduce listening discomfort and stay connected with people.
• Hearing aid suitability: A hearing test for hearing aids is a helpful diagnosis to confirm which devices are suitable for you and how they should be adjusted for your specific listening profile.

Signs That You Need a Hearing Test

• Sign 1: You're not hearing well in certain environments or situations. Whether you're turning the TV volume up louder and louder or dreading social situations because you don't always hear well enough to keep up with conversations, don't ignore changes you notice in your hearing test sounds.
• Sign 2: Someone else has noticed a change in your hearing. Dr Martin notes that it's not uncommon for hearing changes to first be noticed by a spouse, child, loved one or friend — not the person with hearing loss.
• Sign 3: You have pain, pressure or drainage in your ears. These symptoms aren't just uncomfortable — they reduce hearing. They're also typically a sign of an underlying ear problem that needs to be treated.
• Sign 4: You've noticed a ringing-like sound in your ears. More formally called tinnitus, this early sign of hearing loss can also sound like static, buzzing, humming or cricket-like sounds.
• Sign 5: You have a family history of hearing loss. Even if you're not having trouble hearing yet, having a family history of hearing loss is a good reason to establish a relationship with an audiologist and get an early baseline.

Types of Hearing Tests (Adults & Babies, and Children)

Audiometry tests show the type of hearing loss you have and if that loss is mild, moderate or severe. There are several types of hearing tests, including tests for babies, children and adults:

• Pure-tone testing: This common hearing test for adults finds the quietest volume you can hear at each pitch. Children and adults have pure-tone testing.
• Bone conduction testing: This test shows if there are issues with the tiny hair cells in your cochlea. Your cochlea is the part of your inner ear that sends vibrations to your auditory nerve and on to the part of your brain that manages hearing.
• Speech testing: Adults and some children may have this kind of auditory test. Speech testing involves listening to and repeating certain words. The test shows how you understand speech.
• Auditory brainstem response (ABR): This hearing damage test checks the connections or pathways between your inner ear and your brain. Audiologists may use this test to check hearing in children and people who can’t complete pure-tone tests. They may also use this test for people who have a brain injury that affects their hearing.
• Otoacoustic emissions (OAE): Audiologists use this test to check your inner ear function. They typically use this hearing test for newborns and young children.
• Tympanometry: This test checks how well your eardrum moves. Audiologists may do tympanometry tests to see if you have a ruptured eardrum, fluid in your middle ear or wax in your ear canal.

Now that you know the types, you might want to know the hearing test price. In this regard, it should be noted that the costs often depend on the type of test performed and the quality of equipment used by the clinic..

What Happens During a Hearing Test?

For the audiometry test, audiologists let you sit in a soundproof room and listen for tones, sounds or words through headphones, speakers or via speech to identify your hearing capabilities. The auditory test is mainly conducted in six ways, which are as follows:

Pure tone hearing test

This is one of the most common ear screening tests suggested by doctors. Pure tone audiometry helps determine the faintest tones a person can hear at various pitches and frequencies, forming the basis of a hearing threshold graph. Here’s what you’ll need to do during the test:

• You’ll need to sit in a soundproof room and wear headphones or earphones.
• After that, the audiologist will place the audiometer near you to do the test. This device plays sounds at different frequencies and volumes.
• You’ll have to raise your hand and press a button or say ‘yes’ if you hear the sound. 
• Next, the audiologist will record your response or an audiogram, which can later be compared with decibel charts to visualise your hearing range and sensitivity levels

Bone conduction test

During this audiometric examination, sounds directly travel into the inner portions of your ear in the following ways:

• The audiologist will put a small device behind your ear or on your forehead.
• They will send sound signals to your ears through the device. These sounds make your skull vibrate.
• The vibration often skips the outer layer and the middle ear. Next, these frequencies directly go to your inner ear.
• In the next step, the audiologist compares this test with your pure tone test to understand the type of hearing loss you have. 
• In some cases, a tone decay test is also performed to assess how the auditory nerve responds to continuous sounds because it helps to detect nerve-related hearing issues.

Speech test

This auditory screening test helps to identify how well you recognise and understand spoken words. To begin with, your audiologist may do this test along with a pure-tone test:

• You’ll need to wear headphones or earphones and listen to what your audiologist says, words softly and then loudly.
• You’ll repeat the words your audiologist says.
• The audiologist will record the softest dialects you can repeat
• They may also ask you to repeat words spoken more loudly to test your word recognition. 

Auditory brainstem response (ABR)

During this test, you’ll need to stay still and follow the mentioned steps:

• First, you’ll wear earphones for this test.
• The audiologist will place electrodes on your head that stick to your skin and are connected to a computer.
• Next, the electrodes record your brainwave activity as it responds to certain tones and speeches played through the earphones.
• Lastly, the computer displays your brainwave activity and the radiologist reviews it in a computer printout to examine the test results.

Otoacoustic emissions test (OAE)

The OAE test checks your inner ear by measuring otoacoustic emission. OAEs are sounds your inner ear produces in response to the tunes that come from your middle ear. To do this adult and infant hearing test, the audiologist may perform the following actions:

• The audiologist will put a small earphone inside your ear.
• The earphone sends sound into your ear and measures the tunes that come back
• Your test results will show up on a monitor.

Tympanometry

The main purpose of the Tympanometry checks is to check the health of your eardrums. It shows if your eardrum reacts normally to air pushed into the ear. Here, the air acts like a sound from the outer ear. The vibration goes through the middle and inner ear to trigger signals to your brain. Next, your brain translates those signals into sound.

Here’s how the tympanometry test works:

• The audiologist puts a small probe into your ear, which looks like an earphone or earbud.
• The probe has a small device named a tympanogram, which pushes air into the ear.
• The tympanogram measures eardrum movement and shows how it moves.

Preparation for a Hearing Test

Avoid getting sick with a cold or flu before your test.

Here are a few practical tips to prepare for the auditory test:

• Find an audiologist convenient for your daily life with good proximity to your home or workplace
• Avoid exposure to loud sounds before the test
• Get your ears cleaned
• Take a family member or friend along for the test

What to expect

The whole process should take about 30 minutes, and it’s painless.

Most adults who get ear tests are asked to wear earphones and listen to short tones that are played at different volumes and pitches into one ear at a time. Whether or not you can hear each sound shows whether or not you can hear high-pitched or low-pitched sounds, quiet or loud sounds, and whether your left or right ear has hearing loss.

During some auditory tests, you may also be asked to listen to speech at different volumes, which will be played into one ear at a time. The voices will be played quietly through your earphones, and you’ll be asked to repeat what words were just said. This test is done in a soundproof room, since some people have trouble hearing voices when there’s background noise.

After Completing a Hearing Test: What’s Next?

Review Your Results:

An ear test isn’t a pass-fail exam. But the results can show whether you have hearing loss in one or both ears and how much hearing is gone.

The intensity of sound is measured in units called decibels. Adults with hearing loss up to 16-25 decibels have normal hearing. Hearing loss breaks down this way:

• Mild hearing loss: 26 to 40 decibels
• Moderate hearing loss: 41 to 55 decibels
• Moderate-to-severe hearing loss: 56 to 70 decibels
• Severe hearing loss: 71 to 90 decibels
• Profound hearing loss: 91 to 100 decibels

Explore Treatment Options

If you find out that you need to wear hearing aids for severe hearing loss, there are many different styles to choose from, including those sold over the counter. And they’re much smaller than the hearing aids that your grandpa wore years ago. Some models sit behind the ear, others go in it. Still others are hidden all the way in the ear canal.

You can also choose a hearing test at home using certified digital kits, though professional supervision gives more accurate results.

Consider Lifestyle Adjustments:

Tips to be conveyed to the hearing aid user post-fitting for better speech comprehension: 

• Confidence, a positive approach and continuous practice are the only ways to succeed. 
• Always try to face the speaker. 
• Sit near the speaker 
• Keep the environment well illuminated so that they can see the speaker clearly. 
• Always use two hearing aids. 
• Try to move away from noisy environments, if not possible, at least move to a less noisy environment. 
• If attending lectures or prayers, always try to sit in the front rows and at the centre of the rows facing the speaker, where maximum speech information is available. 
• Move away from the source of sound, such as speakers, in order to avoid excess sound. 
• If in a group conversation, try to focus on one speaker at a time. 
• Request to speak one at a time so that you can listen to all. 
• Ask the speaker to speak at a low pace, so you get time to understand the speech entirely. 
• Keep yourself prepared for the topic, and gain as much knowledge as possible before the conversation starts. 
• Keep your attention throughout the conversation. 
• Do not hesitate to ask for a repetition.

Common Myths About Hearing Tests

Many people believe that ear tests are only for those who struggle to hear or elderly individuals. But recognising the truth behind these myths helps to ensure timely care:

• Only older adults need a hearing test: Hearing loss can happen at any stage of life, and it is associated with excessive noise exposure,  infection or genetic conditions.
• Auditory test causes discomfort: The test includes listening to tones and speeches in a quiet space, and does not cause any discomfort to the ears.
• Mild hearing loss improves on its own: Many causes, such as nerve damage or wax buildup, require professional attention to prevent severe conditions.

Follow-Up Care

This stage is even more crucial than the actual fitting itself, wherein the client and the attendant need to be educated about the usage and handling of the device, care and maintenance and do’s and don’ts with hearing aids. The importance of follow-up visits and information related to what to expect during the follow-up session needs to be discussed with clients.

Educate Yourself

Encourage readers to learn more about hearing health, care, and protection after diagnosis. Hearing aid care and maintenance (to be explained to client post fitting): 

• Know about the cleaning tools present in the hearing aid kit. 
• Develop a maintenance routine and stick to it. 
• Clean the device at the end of the day. 
• Avoid extreme heat or cold 
• Always switch off the hearing aid when not in use. 
• The Hearing aid should not be dampened. 
• The Hearing aid should not be worn while sleeping. 
• No solvents are to be used to clean the hearing aid. Concentrate on the wax guard.
• The hearing aid should be placed in a dry aid kit without a battery overnight to control moisture buildup.
• Hearing aid should be worn as long as possible and be comfortable

Role of Audiologists or Hearing Specialists

An Audiologist is a health care professional who is trained to identify, assess, manage and rehabilitate disorders of balance, hearing and other associated systems.

By virtue of education, training, licensure, and certification, audiologists engage in professional practice in the areas of hearing and balance assessment, nonmedical treatment, and (re)habilitation. 

Audiologists provide client-centred care in the prevention, identification, diagnosis, and evidence-based intervention and treatment of hearing, balance, and other related disorders for people of all ages. Audiologists provide professional and personalised services to minimise the negative impact of these disorders, leading to improved outcomes and quality of life.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is an online hearing test?

An online hearing test is a quick sound check taken using your phone or computer to check basic hearing ability.

2. When should I get my hearing tested?

You should get tested if you have trouble hearing conversations, turn up the volume often, or hear ringing in your ears.

3. What are the types of hearing tests?

Common types include pure tone tests, speech tests, tympanometry, and bone conduction tests.

4. Can I take a hearing test online and is it accurate?

Yes, you can take a basic test online, but a full checkup done by an audiologist is more accurate.

5. How long does a hearing test take and is it painful?

It usually takes 15 to 30 minutes and is completely painless.

6. How often should adults and seniors get their hearing checked?

Adults should test every 3 to 5 years, and seniors should get checked once a year.

7. What do hearing test results mean in terms of hearing loss levels?

Results show whether your hearing is normal, or if you have mild, moderate, severe, or profound hearing loss.

8. Where can I get a free or affordable hearing test near me?

You can visit your nearby Hearzap Store to get a free hearing test.