Hearing Self Assessment

Now that you have learned some of the facts about hear­ing loss and Sound Voids™, you can take the first steps toward pre­ven­tion or treat­ment. The fol­low­ing ques­tion­naire has been adapted from a self-assessment tool cre­ated by the Amer­i­can Acad­emy of Oto­laryn­gol­ogy. Please take the time to answer each ques­tion as accu­rately as possible.

When To Get A Hear­ing Test

Most hear­ing loss devel­ops grad­u­ally, so the signs are dif­fi­cult to detect. Ask your­self these ques­tions to eval­u­ate how you are hearing:

1. Do peo­ple seem to mum­ble or speak in a softer voice more than they use to?
YES
NO
2. Do you feel tired or irri­ta­ble after a long conversation?
YES
NO
3. Do you some­times miss key words in a sentence?
YES
NO
4. Do you fre­quently need to ask peo­ple to repeat themselves?
YES
NO
5. Do you have dif­fi­culty under­stand­ing the con­ver­sa­tion in a crowded room?
YES
NO
6. Do you often turn the vol­ume up on the TV or radio?
YES
NO
7. Does back­ground noise bother you?
YES
NO
8. Is it some­times hard to hear the con­ver­sa­tion on the telephone?
YES
NO
9. Do you some­times not hear the door­bell or tele­phone ring?
YES
NO
10. Are your fam­ily or friends com­plain­ing about your hearing?
YES
NO

If you answered YES to two or more of these ques­tions, you may want to sched­ule a hear­ing test by a doc­tor of audi­ol­ogy. Through test­ing, an audi­ol­o­gist can tell you whether you have a hear­ing loss as well as its nature and extent. If a hear­ing loss is detected, an appro­pri­ate course of action will be recommended.

Do You Need A Hear­ing Test?

Your hear­ing is a pre­cious gift – one you need to take care of or run the risk of los­ing. An impor­tant part of hear­ing care is hav­ing your hear­ing checked peri­od­i­cally. There are sev­eral lev­els of hear­ing eval­u­a­tion, from a basic hear­ing test to more com­plex diag­nos­tic tests for spe­cific problems.

Basic Hear­ing Testing

A basic hear­ing test is per­formed in a quiet area (prefer­ably a Sound Booth) with an audiome­ter, a device that pro­duces var­i­ous pitch sounds (fre­quen­cies) at dif­fer­ent lev­els (inten­si­ties). The per­son responds to the sounds by either rais­ing his/her hand or push­ing a button.

Results are then charted on an audio­gram, which gives the audi­ol­o­gist an indi­ca­tion of whether hear­ing is within nor­mal lim­its or if a prob­lem may exist.

If a hear­ing loss is detected, more test­ing can be per­formed to bet­ter define the nature and extent and pos­si­ble cause of the hear­ing loss. Each test eval­u­ates a dif­fer­ent part of the ear. Some typ­i­cal tests per­formed include:

Addi­tional diag­nos­tic testing

  • Tym­panogram – tests the eardrum and the mid­dle ear (the space behind the eardrum).
  • Acoustic reflexes – mea­sures the move­ment of the tiny bones behind the eardrum.
  • Otoa­coustic emis­sion (OAE) – checks the func­tion of the tiny lit­tle “hair cells” in the inner ear.
  • Speech test­ing – eval­u­ates the effect of the hear­ing loss on under­stand­ing speech. Some­times this is per­formed in both a quiet and noisy back­ground, using live or recorded voice.
  • Audi­tory Evoked Poten­tials (ABR) – checks the acoustic nerve func­tion up to and into the first part of the brain (Pons)
  • Electronys­tag­mog­ra­phy (ENG) – eval­u­ates the part of the inner ear con­trol­ling bal­ance. Usu­ally per­formed on indi­vid­u­als who expe­ri­ence dizzi­ness or bal­ance problem.
  • Audi­tory Pro­cess­ing Test­ing (APD/CAPD) – eval­u­ates how the brain per­ceives or under­stands what the ear sends. Many times, this test is rec­om­mended for chil­dren who expe­ri­ence atten­tion or learn­ing prob­lems, or adults who have nor­mal ear func­tion but still have “hear­ing” difficulty.

Call us for a no-obligation hear­ing screen­ing (405)273‑6203 .

Comments are closed.