04/26/2022
Diagnostic Hearing Test - What to Expect
Step 1: Understanding your Concerns
You will fill out a case history to help us better understand the history of your hearing health and any medical concerns. Further, we will have a conversation to better understand your hearing concerns, feelings, and lifestyle to provide you with an experience unique to your needs.
Step 2: Ear Examination
We will assess the health of the external ear through a visual examination of your ears, ear canals, and eardrums. We will then evaluate the middle ear system’s health by measuring eardrum movement and integrity of the structures behind the eardrum.
Step 3 - Full Hearing Assessment
You will complete a series of hearing tests in a sound booth.
The first test is a beep test where you are instructed to press a button every time you hear a beep. This allows us to graph the softest amount of sound that you can hear across a range of pitches.
The second test is the speech reception threshold (SRT), where you hear words at a decreasing volume and repeat them back. This allows us to cross verify the beep test results and determine the softest level you can accurately repeat back speech.
The third test is the word recognition score (WRS), where a sentence is played at a comfortable volume, and the last word of the sentence is repeated back.
Step 4 - Assessment Results
You will receive the results of the entire hearing assessment at the end of the appointment.
STEP 5 - Explore your Options
Depending on your assessment results, we will explore your options.
• Normal Hearing: Monitor your hearing levels annually.
• Mild Hearing Loss: Depending on your hearing health goals, possibly trial hearing aids to determine their benefit.
• Hearing Loss: You may be an excellent hearing aid candidate. We will assist you in finding the best hearing aid solution for your individual needs.