Getting your hearing tested is the first step in finding out about your hearing health. It can help you to determine if you have any hearing loss, as well as whether hearing aids might help you to hear better. When you have your first hearing appointment, your audiologist will conduct a full check of your ears and hearing health. There are several types of test that check your hearing, assessing how your ears and your brain process sound. After a hearing test, your audiologist can go through the results with you to discuss whether you have any hearing loss and what your next steps are.

Consultation

Before you have any tests for your hearing, you have a chance to get to know your audiologist and for them to get to know you. This is when they can learn about your medical history and you can ask any questions that you might have. During the consultation, you can also talk about your lifestyle and anything else that might affect your hearing or how to treat any potential hearing problems. You will talk about whether you have experienced any hearing problems and your reasons for making an appointment. You might want to take notes and perhaps bring someone with you to your appointment.

Ear health

Your audiologist can check the health of your ears with a visual inspection before they carry out any tests. This will involve looking at the outside of your ear and also looking into the canal using an instrument called an otoscope. The otoscope has a light on it so that the audiologist can take a close look at your ears. This examination can help to pick up on any problems with your ears, from infections to earwax buildup. Some underlying conditions can cause hearing problems but they are often easily treated. It's best to pick up on these things early. Your audiologist can also check to see how your eardrum and other parts of your ear are functioning.

Pure-tone testing

There are several tests used to test your hearing. One of them is pure-tone testing, which uses tones at different volumes and frequencies to test the limits of your hearing. You will wear headphones and then indicate when you hear a sound that is played to you (usually by raising your hand or by pressing a button). The results will be plotted on a graph called an audiogram and your audiologist will discuss whether they show any hearing loss.

Speech comprehension test

Communication is essential to your quality of life. If your hearing is affecting your speech comprehension, it can have a significant effect on your ability to socialize, watch TV or listen to the radio and even do your job. When you have your hearing tested, the audiologist will usually test your speech comprehension to see how well you are able to hear and understand speech. You will be asked to repeat words and phrases, which will be played at different sound levels so that you can test how well you can process speech. The results can be taken into account when assessing your hearing as a whole.

Test results

Once your hearing test is complete, your audiologist can go over the results with you. You can take a look at your audiogram from the pure-tone testing and even ask for a copy of it if you want to be able to take it home. The audiogram will show the lowest decibels that you can hear at different frequencies for both your left ear and your right ear. You can also see results for your speech comprehension test, which your audiologist can explain. If you have any hearing loss, you can discuss whether hearing aids might be a good solution for you.

Hearing aids can be useful for many people with hearing loss. Improving your hearing can help to boost your quality of life. You can address problems such as struggling to hear people speak and being unable to hear in crowded places. Getting your hearing tested is the first step to see if hearing aids could be useful for you. If hearing aids are suitable for you to address your hearing loss, your audiologist can help you to start looking at some possible options. There are many hearing aid styles and features to choose from so everyone can find the hearing aids that work for them.

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