Various Types Of Hearing Loss Test and Hearing Test In Adults & What To Expect During Hearing Loss Test In Adults?

Hearing loss can occur at any age and due to various reasons. There are several ways to diagnose hearing loss; and one must schedule a visit with an expert audiologist for diagnosing hearing loss. Read on to know about hearing loss tests, hearing test in adults.

As per the National Institute for Deafness and Other Communication Disorders; today more than 48 million American people have got diagnosable hearing loss; and this is approximately 15% of the total population of America. ⁽¹⁾ Let us know more about the hearing loss tests, hearing tests in adults.

Generally the hearing loss test begins with a physical examination where the doctor looks in to your ear for any cause of the loss of hearing, such as any kind of inflammation or earwax. Apart from this, the doctor also looks for any kind of structural causes that might be the reason for your hearing loss.

There might also be a common screening test, might be the whisper test to know how your respond to several sounds. However, the accuracy of such test is quite limited.

This hearing loss test, hearing test in adults especially helps in determining the range of pitches that an individual can hear. This pure-tone test for hearing loss picks out the faintest tones an individual can hear at several pitches or frequency. This test is not at all painful and patients need not have to worry.

The individuals have to wear headphones during the pure-tone test. Through the headphones, a sound is to be played; and if the sound is audible to the person then they need to raise a hand or respond by saying ‘yes”. For getting accurate results from the test, each ear will be individually tested.

Another hearing loss test is speech test. During this test, the patient who is to be tested, is asked to listen to conversation in noisy and quiet environment. For determining the person’s speech reception threshold, the doctor or audiologist will be recoding word recognition or the patients’ ability to repeat the words again.

There is another hearing loss test for adults known as the auditory brainstem response. This test provides an audiologist the information about the inner ear and the pathways of brain which are required for our hearing. Here electrodes are placed on the patient’s head for recording the brain wave activity.

Middle ear test is also required to test hearing loss in adults. For testing the functioning of your middle ear, the audiologist will have to get the measurements, like tympanometry, static acoustic measures and the acoustic reflex measures.

During this test, the audiologist will push air pressure into the canal and thus cause the eardrum to vibrate back as well as front.

Acoustic reflex measures offer your data regarding the location of any hearing problem. Acoustic reflex is actually the contraction of your middle ear occurring when a loud sound is introduced. Testing for your acoustic measure helps the audiologist to identify the problem in your eardrum and check the opening of the ventilation tubes of the ear.

Otoacoustic emissions are the sounds which are given off by our inner ear when there is a kind of stimulation in the cochlea by sound; are usually measured for narrowing down the types of hearing loss. Such otoacoustic emissions are measured usually by inserting a tiny probe into your ear canal, which is known to measure sounds that is produced by the vibration of your outer hair cells, occurring when there is a kind of stimulation in your cochlea.

There are also some other types of hearing loss test and hearing test in adults which are mentioned below.

There are some mobile applications which are available to test moderate hearing loss on your tablet.

This is another hearing loss test which uses tuning forks that are two-prolonged, metallic instruments producing sounds when they are struck. This is a simple test which can help your doctor detect the level of hearing loss. This kind of evaluation might even reveal where in the ear, there is the damage.

It must be mentioned that most adults who are getting hearing loss tests are generally asked to wear earphone and try to listen short tones played at different pitches and volumes into a single ear at a time. During some type of hearing tests, you might even be asked to listen to speech at different volumes played into an ear at a time. There will be some voices that will be played quietly through the earphones and then you will be asked for repeating the words said. These tests might either be done in a quiet room or a noisy room.

The results of a hearing loss test can show if you are having a hearing loss in one in both your ears, and also how much of your hearing ability is gone.

The units called Decibels, is used to measure the sound intensity. When somebody whispers in the ears, the sound is 30 decibels. However, 60 decibels is the normal speech and shouting in the ear begins at 80 decibels. Adults having hearing loss up to 25 decibels, usually have normal hearing. If your hearing test show 26 to 40 decibels, then you might be having mild hearing loss. Similarly, if the results show 41 to 55 decibels then there is moderate hearing loss. For moderate to severe hearing loss, the hearing loss test would show 56 to 70 decibels. The hearing test results will show 71 to 90 decibels if you have severe loss of hearing. However 91 to 100 decibels show profound hearing loss in you. You doctor will diagnose your hearing condition and treat you accordingly based on your hearing loss test results.

So, above we talked about some of the hearing loss test, hearing tests for adults. If you suspect that you might be having any problem with your hearing then do not delay in meeting an audiologist or the specialist doctor and get yourself diagnosed.

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Also Read:

• Sudden Hearing Loss: Causes, Diagnosis, Treatment, Prevention
• Can Hearing Loss be Treated Naturally?
• How to Raise a Child with Hearing Loss?
• 4 Common Causes of Temporary Hearing Loss & It’s Treatment
• What is Moderate Hearing Loss & How Does it Affect a Childs Learning?
• Causes, Symptoms of Hearing Loss in Adults & Its Treatment
• Work Related Hearing Loss