With a complete understanding of your unique hearing challenges, you and your audiologist can work together to craft a treatment plan that ensures stronger, clearer hearing for life.
Even just one hearing evaluation will give you comprehensive knowledge of how your hearing is faring, so you can keep tabs on it as time goes on. By building a trusting relationship with your audiologist, you can work as a team to optimize your hearing health.
Frequently Asked Questions About Hearing Loss and Hearing Tests
Q. Are there different forms of hearing loss?
A. Yes. There are three different forms of hearing loss, including:
- Conductive hearing loss
- Sensorineural hearing loss
- Mixed hearing loss
Q. What is conductive hearing loss?
A. Conductive hearing loss involves an obstruction along the hearing pathway, but the sensory organs of the inner ear remain intact. Hearing challenges usually include issues with volume. Causes may include:
- Narrowing of the ear canal
- Earwax or foreign substances in the ear
- Exostoses (bone-like protrusions inside the ear canal)
- Otitis externa (swimmer's ear)
- Microtia or atresia (congenital deformities)
- Ruptured tympanic membrane (eardrum)
- Tympanosclerosis (thickening of the tympanic membrane)
- Fluid in the ear or otitis media (ear infection)
- Eustachian tube blockage
- Otosclerosis (affects the stapes bone in the middle ear)
- Abnormal growths or tumors
- Ossicular discontinuity (broken connection between the bones of the middle ear)
Q. What is sensorineural hearing loss?
A. The most common type of permanent hearing loss is sensorineural hearing loss, which typically involves damage to the tiny hair-like cells of the inner ear (stereocilia) or a malfunction of the auditory nerves that transfer sound signals to the brain.
Sensorineural hearing loss can be the result of a genetic syndrome, an infection passed from mother to fetus, or it can develop later in life, such as presbycusis or ongoing exposure to loud noise (noise-induced hearing loss or NIHL). A primary characteristic of sensorineural hearing loss is reduced hearing clarity, but other symptoms can include feelings of unsteadiness or dizziness, tinnitus, and early onset dementia or cognitive decline.
The causes of sensorineural hearing loss may be related to:
- Heart disease and diabetes
- Infections like mumps
- Meniere's disease
- Use of ototoxic drugs or medications
- Acoustic neuroma or a cancerous growth in the inner ear
- Concussion or traumatic brain injury
- Autoimmune diseases or thyroid disease
- Frequent exposure to loud noise
Q. What is mixed hearing loss?
A. Those experiencing a mixed hearing loss will struggle with clarity and loudness issues related to both conductive and sensorineural hearing loss. Mixed hearing loss typically presents within the following set of circumstances:
- Trauma that causes structural damage to a person with a sensorineural hearing loss
- A person with a conductive hearing loss developing a sensorineural hearing loss as they get older
- Blast injuries and other forms of trauma that cause concurrent sensorineural and conductive hearing loss
Q. Can hearing loss go away without a hearing aid?
A. Conductive hearing loss can go away as inflammation decreases or after the removal of an obstruction in the ear canal by a hearing care professional.
Q. How long will my hearing test take?
A. It takes no more than 30 minutes to complete a hearing exam, but the intake process and discussion of your results may take up additional time because of various circumstances.
Q. What are some of the tests used to diagnose hearing loss?
A. A series of tests may or may not be used during a hearing test, such as:
- Tympanometry, which measures the reaction of the eardrum to a subtle pressure change in the ear canal. It helps identify fluid behind the eardrum, a ruptured eardrum, or other middle ear issues.
- Pure Tone Audiometry is used to determine the type and severity of your hearing loss by establishing your hearing threshold, which is the lowest level that you can hear pure tones between 250 Hz and 8000 Hz that are transmitted through headphones.
- Speech Audiometry testing involves two tests: your speech reception threshold (SRT), which includes spoken words transmitted at varying levels and frequencies, and speech discrimination, which records the number of phonetically-balanced words you can repeat correctly at a comfortable listening level.
- Bone Conduction Tests are conducted by transmitting sound signals directly to the inner ear through the surrounding bones by using a special type of headband. When compared with pure tone test results, it can help us distinguish between sensorineural or conductive type hearing loss.
- Additional Tests can include otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) tests or auditory brainstem response (ABR) tests that may be used for certain cases.
What Happens During a Hearing Evaluation?
Your first hearing assessment from one of our doctors of audiology will be the first of many during your hearing health journey. With over 70 years of gold-standard local hearing care, we’re constantly evolving and refining our process to ensure your hearing evaluation is as comprehensive and thorough as possible.
With further hearing tests down the line, you’ll be able to understand how your hearing changes over time, and we can take steps together to help optimize it.
Berkeley Hearing Center’s Hearing Evaluation Process
A Conversation About You
Our hearing evaluation process begins by getting to know you as our patient: your occupation, your hobbies and interests, social activities, and a discussion about your medical history to do with hearing loss. We’ll also chat about any family members with similar challenges and how hearing loss affects your day-to-day life.
This conversation not only helps us get to know you better (we love meeting new people!) but also allows us to understand possible causes for your hearing loss, and it also helps us to further customize your treatment to fit your unique needs.
A Physical Assessment of Your Ears
Your audiologist will then perform a physical examination of your ears with an otoscope. With this, we can rule out inflammation or infection as the cause of your hearing loss, as well as clear out any impacted earwax or obstructions that could’ve caused conductive hearing loss.
Diagnostic Tests of Your Hearing
We’ll then move on to the diagnostic hearing tests to measure and record the levels of your hearing loss. With different technologies and techniques to zero in on your specific type and severity of hearing loss, you’ll be able to understand your current range of hearing and what you need to do to help optimize it.
Your hearing test will be painless, and you will be seated for almost the entirety of the test. Diagnostic tests may include tympanometry, pure tone audiometry, speech audiometry, bone conduction testing, otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) testing, and/or auditory brainstem response (ABR) testing.
Discussing Your Results and Next Steps
You’ll get your results on the same day, ensuring that you can quickly start to make moves to help your hearing further. Your audiologist will show you the printed results of your hearing test, discuss what your results mean, and answer any questions you may have regarding the hearing challenges you’ve been experiencing.
Your treatment options depend on your results, and we’ll work with you to develop a plan of action to meet your specific goals for better hearing. Options include amplification (e.g., hearing aids), minor surgical procedures, pharmaceutical intervention, hearing protection, or other advanced forms of treatment.
Hearing care is far more than just great technology; a partnership with a team of passionate audiologists who support and guide you to make informed choices about your treatment options is what helps our patients soar!
Schedule Your Hearing Evaluation Today
A comprehensive hearing assessment will not only provide you with the truth about your hearing challenges – it is the crucial first step in your hearing health journey, helping you lay the groundwork for what your ears need to succeed.
Contact us using the adjacent form in order to schedule a hearing evaluation with one of our doctors of audiology.
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