When it comes to maintaining your hearing health, seeing a professional is essential for enhancing your communication and listening abilities. If you often find yourself needing others to repeat themselves or having difficulty hearing certain sounds, scheduling a hearing test could be beneficial. During your appointment at Absolute Hearing Care Centers, our skilled specialists will conduct a comprehensive series of evaluations to assess your hearing function. These tests are designed to pinpoint any hearing issues and determine the specific frequencies and volumes that may be problematic. By understanding your unique hearing profile, we can collaborate to create tailored solutions that ensure you stay connected to the conversations and sounds that matter most.
Why is a Hearing Evaluation Important?
Hearing evaluations give us an in-depth look at the health of your hearing system. They help us identify the specific problem areas you have, if any, and figure out which forms of corrective action are right for you. For example, your hearing evaluation could tell us whether you struggle with hearing low or high frequencies. Your hearing aid specialist will take information and use it to recommend the right kinds of hearing support devices.
The only way to provide you with a personalized hearing solution is for us to understand your personalized hearing health situation. We get there by completing your initial hearing evaluation.
What to Expect During Your Hearing Evaluation
Our hearing evaluations take about an hour to complete. The process begins with a review of your symptoms and medical history. These help us direct the evaluation in the appropriate direction for your unique needs.
Next, we complete your hearing tests. You may go through several. We’ll ask you to listen to various sounds and let us know what you hear, among other steps. The whole process is non-invasive and fairly straightforward.
Our team will walk you through our testing selection, but some of the most common include:
- Pure-tone audiometry: This test measures your ability to hear different frequencies and volumes of sound. It helps identify the degree and type of hearing loss by presenting a range of tones through headphones.
- Speech audiometry: This test evaluates how well you can understand spoken words at various volume levels. It involves listening to and repeating back words or sentences to assess speech comprehension.
- Tympanometry: This test assesses the movement of the eardrum in response to changes in air pressure. It helps identify issues with the middle ear, like fluid buildup or eardrum perforation.
- Auditory brainstem response (ABR): This test records electrical activity in the auditory nerve and brainstem in response to sound stimuli. It is used to assess hearing ability and diagnose auditory nerve or brainstem disorders.
Discussing Your Results
Afterward, we’ll review the results of your tests and use them to make a personalized care recommendation. That may mean recommending a certain kind of hearing aid. If so, we’ll talk to you about some of the features you can choose from, like Bluetooth connectivity and low-profile designs.
You’ll have plenty of opportunities to ask questions throughout this process. You may even want to bring a family member with you to make sure you remember to ask everything you want to know. At the end of your appointment, we’ll schedule a follow-up session based on your results. This will be when you receive your hearing aid or whatever other form of care we recommend.