Comprehensive Hearing Testing

What to Expect

Having your hearing tested is one of the best ways you can protect your overall health. Hearing loss is linked to serious underlying health conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and kidney disease. Even if your hearing loss is not the result of an underlying health condition, treating it will protect against depression, cognitive decline, falls, and more. In fact, because of the importance of proper hearing in communication, socialization, and quality of life, protecting your hearing may be one of the most important things you can do to maintain your overall well being and independence as you age!

Audiologic testing is designed to test for hearing loss and other hearing or balance issues. These non-invasive, comprehensive diagnostic tests will give our hearing specialists the information needed to make a diagnosis as well as determine the severity of the condition and the recommended treat-ment.
In most cases, you’ll see the audiologist for testing before you see the doc-tor.

Your comprehensive hearing testing may include:

Diagnostic audiogram
While the name may sound intimidating, this is a non-invasive hearing test that involves listening to different sounds at specific frequencies (between 250 and 8000 Hz —the threshold necessary to understand speech. Audio-grams may also test your ability to comprehend words you hear through the headphones.

Tympanometry
This test examines the function of the eardrum and middle ear. A tympa-nometer device is inserted (painlessly) into the ear canal, where it creates air pressure changes and measures the body’s response. You’ll need to re-main quiet and still and refrain from speaking or swallowing during the test. If hearing loss is due to fluid buildup, earwax, or a perforated eardrum, this will be indicated in the results of the tympanogram.

Otoacoustic Emissions (OAE) Testing
OAE testing assesses how well the inner ear (cochlea) is functioning.