What Do Hearing Tests Tell a Hearing Professional?

Those hearing tests aren’t just for patients and their hearing health; did you know that hearing health professionals also need these to help determine where your hearing health stands? All of this will help them figure out the best form of treatment, whether it be auditory therapy, hearing aids or some other advice. While there is a whole array of hearing health tests, including hearing tests, here is what hearing health professionals learn thanks to these tests!

The Patient’s Auditory Reflexes

The acoustic reflex is the way that you protect yourself against loud noises. The stapedius muscle in your middle ear contracts when you hear a loud sound, slowing the rate at which that sound gets to your ear canal and then to your cochlea. Your hearing health professional may test your acoustic reflex with a probe tone. Typically, a 226 hertz probe tone is used. These reflexes can’t be faked, and they’re perfect for determining how well your ears can hear loud sounds and what your acoustic reflexes are.

How Well Patients Can Recognize Speech

The more challenges you’re faced with your hearing means, the more challenges you’ll have with speech recognition. A speech test determines a person’s ability to hear and understand speech sounds. These tests measure a person’s hearing in terms of the loudness and pitch of sounds. In a speech test, a hearing health professional says words to you at different volume levels. You then repeat the words.

Every patient needs to have this test, as this helps their speech recognition. This is especially apparent for children, age-related hearing loss and those dealing with tinnitus. This will help hearing health professionals get an idea of how much you can pick up when hearing others talk.

What the Patient Is Able to Hear

A pure-tone test uses a series of tones at different frequencies to measure your ability to hear sounds. Hearing health professionals use pure-tone tests to find out how well their patients can hear and whether they have hearing loss. A typical pure-tone test uses tones that range from one kilohertz to 500 hertz and are emitted at varying volumes. This is going to help hearing health professionals determine how well their patients can hear and what frequencies their patients can and cannot hear.

Ear Health

One more thing you can’t forget is ear health. Your hearing health professional will be able to determine how well your ear health is. This goes together with your hearing health. For instance, if you have built up earwax, excess fluid or damage to your eardrum of the nerves surrounding it, then a hearing test and a physical examination are going to help the hearing health professional out.

Hearing tests are needed, as this can make a major difference in what will be considered the best treatment for their patients. These are meant to help both the patient and the hearing health professional. You should never be afraid of hearing tests. They’re entirely pain-free and all around meant to help you out so you can go back to having a comfortable lifestyle!