You’ve probably read in other places than just our blog that getting a hearing test is a good idea. But the fact is, people aren’t very familiar with hearing tests. While we look forward to the day when they’re just as common and blood tests, most doctors simply don’t include thorough hearing assessments in annual physicals.
One thing that does is make a hearing test seem mysterious and perhaps a little frightening. To clear up any misconceptions, we’d like to walk you through what you can expect if you visit us for testing. First, let’s answer a couple of questions:
Why get a hearing test in the first place? Even if you feel that your hearing is 100% fine, the fact remains that any of us can eventually be subject to hearing loss. And since hearing loss tends to come on very slowly, getting a baseline hearing test to measure your hearing against over time is a smart idea.
Blood tests have needles. What hurts about a hearing test? Nothing! Hearing tests are a painless, easy way to figure out if you have hearing loss, what type it is and how severe it is. All that information helps hearing health professionals in recommending solutions, should hearing loss be diagnosed.
Here’s what to expect when you visit us for testing:
Exploring your hearing history. This is similar to the basic health and lifestyle questionnaire you answered for your general practitioner when you first became a patient. Is there hearing loss in your family? Do you have a job or hobby that puts you in regular contact with loud noises? Do you have allergies? Are you particularly prone to ear infections? Have you ever had an injury to the area around your ears? Hearing loss can have a number of causes, so it’s important for us to find out right away if any of the more common causes is a part of your life.
Performing the tests.All you have to do during a hearing test is listen and respond. Just step into a room or booth that has been specially set up to achieve maximum quiet, put on some earphones or soft earpieces, sit down and relax. Using an instrument called an audiometer, your hearing heath professional will play various tones, changing the pitch and volume as the test progresses. Your part is to listen and indicate when you’ve heard something. After that, you’ll go through a similar process, but while listening to and responding to speech. Another test you might encounter is tympanometry, which measures “acoustic reflexes”—the response of your eardrum and other mechanisms of the middle ear.
After your testing is complete, your hearing health professional will go over the results with you in detail. If hearing loss is discovered, you’ll get immediate advice on next steps. If your hearing is normal, you will have set a baseline to measure your hearing against in the future.
