What is audiometry?
Audiometry is the process of measuring a patient’s hearing acuity. Everyone should take a hearing test at some point in their life. New-born screening tests are conducted as soon as a child is born. This is because treating a hearing loss at an early age helps a child to learn how to speak. As we get older, our hearing ability changes and so it's important that hearing tests are conducted regularly.
Hearing tests may also identify other underlying health issues so it's important to check a person’s hearing ability with regular testing and with a qualified audiologists or hearing health professional.
What does audiometry measure?
An audiometer is used to measure the patient's response to different sounds depending on different sound levels, as well as distinguishing speech with or without background noise at different sound levels.
If a person has a sudden loss of hearing ability, a noticeable hearing loss in one or both ears, has a history of ear infections or has recently had surgery to the head, then it is recommended to see a medical professional for a hearing test to check their hearing health is ok.
How do audiometry tests work?
With the use of an audiometer, an audiologist or healthcare professional will be able to measure a person’s hearing ability by playing different sounds (for instance tones or speech) with the aim to diagnose a hearing loss which may have been caused by disease or injury. These results are usually displayed or printed on an audiogram.
A hearing test is usually carried out by a specifically trained medical professional like a doctor or nurse, an audiologist or a qualified occupational health professional. These professionals have an excellent understanding of the biology of the ear, the science of hearing and the knowledge to measure and diagnose a patient’s hearing ability.
In audiometry, what are screening and diagnostic tests used for?
A screening hearing test is used to determine if there are signs of a hearing loss, it will record a patient’s reaction to pure tones played. The results of the screening test will then allow the hearing health professional to determine if further examination or tests are required.
A diagnostic test is performed after a failed screening test. It is conducted to find out the whys, hows and the extent of the hearing loss. A diagnostic audiometer is used by the audiologist to assess the hearing ability and provides a full evaluation of the patients hearing ability. It will measure how well the patient hears pure tones and understands speech.
The test duration usually takes longer than a screening test in order to assess the entire patient's hearing ability.