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If you have decided to schedule a hearing test, congratulations! It usually takes people seven years to get to this point, so you should be proud of yourself! You are taking a big step towards your hearing health and your general health by doing so. Schedule your hearing exam at one of our locations in Grand Rapids, Edina, Duluth, Burnsville, MN or Superior, WI now.
Hearing exams are easy, fast and painless and they provide you with essential insights on your ability to hear. The aim of a hearing exam is to determine not only if you have hearing loss, but the nature and extent of it.
What to do before your hearing exam
In the days before your hearing test, gather your private medical history. Some kinds of medicines influence your hearing, so compile a list for your visit if you take any of them.
Think about the environments where you find it that is harder to hear than other settings. For example, you might find it more difficult to hear in cafes or restaurants. By knowing about these situations in advance, you can easily answer the questions your hearing professional will have for you.
This is what you can expect during the hearing evaluation:
A consultation
A brief interview and summary of your medical history is the first step in your hearing examination. Your hearing professional will ask you about any special problems or concerns that have led you to schedule the hearing test.
They will ask you about your lifestyle and job to determine whether you are frequently subjected to dangerous noise levels. Another portion of your hearing health history involves taking medicines, some of which can cause hearing harm.
A medical history review will help your hearing professional to detect the root causes of a hearing problem and can also bring them closer to the best course of treatment.
Physical examination
The next step is a painless physical exam. The hearing specialist will use an otoscope to test your ear canal and ear drum. They are checking for any obstruction in this area as well as harm to the eardrum such as a perforation or rupture.
Hearing Tests
Next up are the hearing tests themselves. You will be asked to use headphones and made to sit in a soundproofed room. Here are the two most common hearing tests your hearing professional will perform:
A Pure tone audiometry is intended to evaluate your capacity to hear sounds at various volumes and pitches. The sounds won’t be unbelievably noisy and should not be unpleasant to hear but will gradually decrease in volume. Your hearing professional might also vary switch up volumes and frequencies to further test your hearing. You might have to push a button or give a signal to show that you can hear the sounds. It’s impossible to hear all the sounds played, so don’t be concerned if you don’t manage to hear everything.
Hearing tests can also evaluate your capacity to recognize speech, and that’s what a speech recognition test is for. A series of human voice recordings are divided into phrases or smaller voice units, known as phonemes. These will be played for you at different volumes to test your ability to understand speech not only in terms of volume, but also your ability to understand high- and low-pitched voices.
Reviewing the results
One nice thing about these types of tests is that the findings are instantly accessible so you don’t need to wait around for your results. Your hearing professional will speak to you about your outcomes and their implications for your long-term hearing health. Your questions will be answered and the nature of your current hearing abilities will be thoroughly broken down. The hearing professional will then work to find the best solution to satisfy your hearing requirements if a hearing loss is identified.
Audiology Concepts
Hearing aids are the most frequently used form of hearing loss treatment. At Audiology Concepts, we have multiple options of hearing aids with state-of-the-art technologies to suit your lifestyle seamlessly and reconnect you with the important people in your life. For more information or to schedule an appointment, contact us today.