Everything You Need To Know About An Audiometer

By Allyson Burke


If you feel like you might have trouble hearing, an audiometer hearing test might be the first thing that you will try out to find out the truth. In general, a doctor will test your hearing abilities with various devices first, including basic screenings and tuning forks. After that, he should have a pretty good understanding whether you are suffering from hearing loss. If this happens to be the case, then he should request for more thorough tests to be done.

This is what happens with audiometer screenings. A lot of the time, you will have to visit a specialist for this screening. The specialist in charge is known as an audiologist. To find out more about this screening, read on.

When it comes to this special screening, your audiologist will aim to find out how far your abilities go in terms of hearing. This usually involves a slew of tests instead of a single one, wherein you will be asked questions in order to gather important information behind your condition. Your medical history will be questioned before you go through the actual audiometer test, as well.

During this test, you will have to wear headphones that fit well over your ears in order to block out sounds that come from outside of the room that you are in. After that, different sounds will go into your ears one by one. The aim of this test is to check each individual ear since loss may occur in a single ear or in both at the same time.

Most of the time, these sounds will also come in at various kinds of frequencies or levels, as well. This is done to find out whether you can hear low sounds or high sounds or whether you can hear various sounds at all. To gauge your level of hearing, your specialist might ask for you to raise a finger or a hand on the side of whichever ear the sounds seem to be coming from for you.

Some sounds may be loud, while others may be faint. Sometimes, you may not hear anything at all. This is completely normal, though. Just make sure you let your specialist know exactly what you can hear, so that he can give you a proper evaluation that will benefit you in the end.

By going through this test, doctors can find out how bad your hearing loss actually is. They will also figure out whether you need more hearing evaluations overall. So, make sure you take this test seriously and don't just play guessing games with it to make it seem like you can hear perfectly well.

Fortunately, an audiometer hearing test can give your doctor a great deal of information overall regarding your current hearing levels. From there, you can then visit a specialist to provide you with helpful treatment options or more tests in order to receive more information regarding your comfort levels and the treatment decisions that have to be made in the end.




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