Should a Hearing Test Scare Me?

Most people don't like tests. Driving tests are difficult and time-consuming and, if you fail, you won't receive a license and a right to rule the road. School exams can be very hard and can also control whether or not you pass the class, graduate, or are admitted into college. In your last semester of college or grad school, final exams are the worst - if you fail them, there's a chance you'll fail the class and not graduate or your GPA will take a serious hit. No one likes exams but there is one test that can help you be healthier. If you're experiencing hearing loss, you need to see an audiologist and take a hearing test to determine the extent of the damage. Luckily, with some foreknowledge, you can be prepared and know exactly what to expect. An audiologist will be a licensed professional who will know exactly what to do. When you arrive for your appointment, you will be asked things such as your medical history, when you first noticed you were having hearing problems. These and other questions such as how loud are noises at different places you frequent will help the doctor be prepared. Following these preliminaries, you will be taken into a soundproof room for further examination. The room looks a lot like those where musicians such as Bon Jovi and Rascal Flatts record their hit songs but this one is used for two tests. The first procedure is called the pure tone exam. Your audiologist will give you a set of headphones or a set of earplugs and ask you to put them on. These will administer a series of tones directly into your ears. An audiometer is the device that will generate these tones in varying frequencies, tones, and volumes. The purpose of this exam is to help the audiologist to determine the threshold at which you can hear each frequency. To determine this, you will indicate when you hear the tone. Each of your ears will be tested individually. This is a lot like a basic eye exam that determines the sight threshold of each eye. This exam will prove which ear is worse or if only one is experiencing the problem. Assuming you've passed the first test (and it's not graded on pass/fail so you should be good to proceed to the next level), your doctor will administer another exam that will measure your hearing again. This second exam is called a Speech test. You will hear a series of words and you will be required to repeat them. Some of the words will have more than one syllable and will decrease in volume as you go along. The purpose of this test is to determine at what level you can detect and understand speech. It's not simply to determine if you know that speech is present but that you can understand what is being said. Once you've taken the hearing tests, your audiologist will compile the results and get you started on a path to healing and better hearing.