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As a patient, you probably assume that there is only one type of test your audiologist uses to check your hearing. In fact, there are three types of tests that an audiologist has at his or her disposal. One is more common than the others, which is why you probably are aware of only one. The others are used when a different set of circumstances present themselves and the usual test might not be very helpful.
The Audiometer
A hearing test by audiometer is the most common. This is the test you are probably most familiar with. You sit at a table with headphones on and the audiologist sits in a control booth behind you. Tones are sent through wires to the headphones on one side of your head or the other. You respond to the tones by raising your right or left hand to indicate which side of the head you heard the tones on.
Generally, they start out loud and clear and gradually get softer and softer until you let the audiologist know that you cannot hear anything anymore. This test gives the audiologist a clear idea of how well you hear and what pitches and tones you can hear easily.
The Whispered Word Test
Most audiologists do not typically perform this test as patients are a little uncomfortable with it. It involves closing off one ear and listening to the audiologist whisper words in your other ear. Patients sometimes find this a little too creepy or unsettling, since the audiologist has to get really close to them to whisper in their ears. However, it does help determine one's ability to distinguish spoken words in the midst of other sounds.
Auditory Brain Stem Response
This test helps audiologists discover any problems you may have with your hearing at the auditory nerve level. Electrodes are placed near your brain stem and behind your ear lobes. Noises are projected into the canal with tiny microphones and the electrodes pick up on the brain's response to hearing the sounds. If you have auditory nerve damage, the electrodes will not be able to pick up any signals, alerting your audiologist to the source of your hearing problems. You may or may not be under general anesthesia for this test.
Other Tests
There are a couple of other tests, but often they are used on infants and children and are not quite as reliable or telling. If the audiologist uses these tests first, he or she almost always follows up with one of the other three tests listed above. Once a hearing loss has been ascertained, your audiologist like Barth Craig T Ma CCC-a will discuss treatment options with you.
Share31 December 2014
