A free hearing screening test takes about 15 minutes, with more comprehensive tests taking up to an hour to complete. If you have booked a hearing test on a day, it’s recommended to free up time in your schedule before and after the hearing test period so that you are not in a hurry to complete the test.
A hearing test is an important health check in, for all ages. Rushing through the test is not ideal as it will often result in inaccurate results, which defeats the purpose of having a hearing test done altogether. Instead, be patient and take the time to understand how the test is conducted so that you can get a reliable assessment of your hearing health.
What happens during a hearing test?
Hearing tests usually involve not just one, but a battery of smaller tests in succession that each cover a different aspect of your hearing ability or ear health. Here are the steps involved during a hearing test:
Setting goals
The first part of the hearing test will involve a discussion with the conducting audiologist to determine your communication needs. Examples of such needs can range from wanting to use a hearing aid to determining if there is any hearing loss. We make use of a rubric called the Client-Oriented Scale of Improvement to record your goals for future reference.
Ear health history
The audiologist will then ask you questions about your medical history that are related to your hearing ability, such as prior or ongoing conditions like tinnitus or vertigo. You may also be asked about your lifestyle or past events to get a clearer understanding of your degree of noise exposure.
Ear examination
A physical examination of your ear will be carried out by the audiologist, using a specialised tool. This examination can help to identify any abnormalities of concern, or blockages in the ear canal such as wax or debris that need to be removed.
Tympanometry test
During the tympanometry test, the audiologist will put a small probe into each ear. Puffs of air will be pushed into the ear to test the mobility and pressure of the middle ear. No actions are required from you during the tympanometry test — just sit and relax.
Pure tone audiometry
Audiometry is conducted to measure the hearing frequency thresholds of both ears. You will be placed in a quiet, enclosed room while wearing a pair of headphones. The audiologist will play sound tones of different frequencies through the headphones which you will be asked to respond to as you hear them.
Bone conduction
The audiologist will place a headband with a vibrating device on your head. The vibrating part of the headband will be positioned behind your ear and will pass different tone frequencies directly through your skull to your inner ear. There is no discomfort during this part of the hearing test — it will just seem a little strange if you have not listened using bone conduction before.
Speech discrimination
Hearing tests by most services only test for 9 frequencies that range from 250Hz to 8000Hz. However, some forms of speech consist of higher frequency harmonics above 8000Hz that can provide additional listening context, especially in noisy environments. This is why at Harmony Hearing; our diagnostic hearing tests routinely include frequencies from 250Hz up to 10,000 Hz.
What happens after a hearing test?
Once the hearing test is complete, the audiologist will provide you with a brief overview of your hearing ability and ear health. If you have substantial hearing loss, the audiologist will be able to present some hearing aid device options for you to consider. You will be able to try them on and test them at the end of the hearing test appointment to experience the improvement they can have in hearing ability.
In certain cases where there is evidence of underlying health conditions, the audiologist will provide you with a copy of your test results, as well as a written report detailing the issues found. These results can be brought to your doctor for a further check-up.