A hearing test can determine the level of hearing loss for individuals of all ages. An audiology specialist with an audiogram usually performs a hearing test. An audiogram measures a person’s hearing sensitively at various frequencies.
Audiometry tests are usually performed on adults and children experiencing the normal range of hearing loss for their age and level of hearing acuity. Children often have average or above-average hearing capacity; however, children experience extreme or profound hearing loss in some instances. Audiology specialists perform audiometry tests to assess the underlying cause of the hearing loss. Some of the common causes of hearing loss include Meniere’s syndrome, middle ear infection, vestibular neurons, conductive hearing loss, sensorineural hearing loss, balance problem, and brain tumour.
A hearing test Adelaide measures the ability of the hearing organs to detect external sounds. During the test, the patient’s ability to detect sounds are evaluated by a professional auditor. The audiologist will play various sounds at different volumes to the patient and ask him or her to match the sound with the intensity, pitch, and rhythm of the sounds. The severity of the hearing loss can then be determined.
Pure tone audiometry (PTA) is the process of determining an individual’s hearing level by evaluating the response of the individual’s ears to different frequency frequencies of tones. Frequencies of tones that do not produce pain or discomfort are recorded and compared with the individual’s ears to different frequency tones. The hearing level is calculated based on the difference in the responses.
An audiometry evaluation typically involves several procedures. First, a patient may have to wait for the audiologist to fit him or her for the measurement properly. Next, the patient has to wear headphones for the whole duration of the procedure. It allows the individual to hear different sounds at different pitches and volumes. He or she has to listen to the sounds at more than one frequency and different volumes.
After the patient has listened to the sounds at more than one frequency and more than one volume, he or she has to do a series of patterned trial trials. These trial sessions are essential to evaluate how the ear can detect different pitches and volumes. If the trial sessions don’t show significant differences in the different pitches and volumes, the patient will need to wear headphones for a more extended period. The length of time the person wears headphones depends on how many sounds the individual can hear at once. Usually, the entire trial period takes only about ten minutes.
If during the hearing test Adelaide, the audiologist finds that the patient’s hearing is improving, he or she will perform a speech recognition test. During this test, the person will have to respond to sounds with speech. The person cannot talk back, but the audiologist will speak back to the person. If the person correctly speaks back, the patient will get a reading indicating his or her level of hearing.
