Types of hearing tests: what to expect from a hearing test

If you’ve noticed some difficulties with your hearing, the chances are you’ll benefit from having your hearing tested.

Around 37.5 million adults in the US report they have hearing problems – that’s around 15% of the population. Among people aged 75 and over, half have disabling or severe hearing loss.

However, according to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), just 20% of adults responding to a poll said they’d had a hearing test in the last five years.

Hearing loss has multiple possible causes, and many of them are treatable.

It’s important to have your hearing loss assessed by a healthcare professional, so they can identify the cause and recommend the best treatment.

If you think your hearing test is overdue, or your hearing is gradually getting worse, it’s always worth speaking to a professional. We can connect you with a local audiologist to get you the help you need. Fill in our quick form and we’ll do the rest

What is a hearing test?

Hearing tests assess how well you can hear, and can identify if you have any hearing loss, the degree of hearing loss, and what’s causing it.

There are different types of hearing loss, and hearing tests can help to determine which type of hearing loss you have.

Some hearing tests for kids might be the same as for adults, while others will be different.

Do I need a hearing test?

It is recommended that adults have a routine hearing test every 10 years until they’re 50, and every three years thereafter.

Many people don’t realize they have hearing loss because it happens gradually over a long period of time. Often, loved-ones notice the signs of hearing loss before you recognize anything is different.

That’s why it’s a good idea to attend your scheduled hearing test when it’s due.

You should also consider having a hearing test if you’ve noticed any changes in your hearing as they could indicate some hearing loss.

You might feel embarrassed or uncomfortable at the prospect of losing your hearing. But it’s important to remember that the sooner you have your hearing tested and the cause of your hearing loss diagnosed, the more likely it is to be successfully treated and better managed.

What hearing tests will I have?

Your doctor or audiologist will run through your medical history and ask you about your hearing. They will suggest which tests might be useful.

Some hearing aid brands and service providers offer online hearing tests and free hearing tests. They are typically less reliable than standard, in-person hearing tests, which are also more thorough.

It is recommended that you visit your doctor or audiologist to have your hearing tested. Here are some of the most common types of adult hearing tests you might come across.

Hearing screening

This is a very quick, basic test to check how well you hear different sounds. It’s a simple pass-fail test, and if you pass you won’t need to do anything else. If you fail, you should have more tests.

Hearing screenings are used to check newborn babies’ hearing before they leave the hospital and in kids’ hearing tests. Anyone can have a hearing screening at any age.

Pure-tone testing

This test involves wearing earphones that play beep sounds into each ear in turn. When you hear a sound through the earphones, you indicate you’ve heard it usually by raising your hand or pressing a button.

The sounds are played at different levels of loudness and pitch. This helps to find the quietest sound you can hear at different pitches, in each ear.

Tuning fork testing

This is a simple test that can quickly signal what type of hearing loss you have, called a Weber hearing test or a Rinne hearing test.

Sensorineural hearing loss occurs as a result of damage to a part of the inner ear, or the auditory nerve that carries sound waves to the brain. Conductive hearing loss occurs when sound waves are blocked from moving through the outer or inner ear, stopping sound from reaching the inner ear.

During a tuning fork hearing test, your audiologist will hold a two-pronged metal tool called a tuning fork behind your ear or on top of your head.

They’ll strike the tuning fork so it makes a sound. It’s completely painless and takes a few moments.

You then tell the person conducting the test when you hear the sound, whether you hear it at different volumes, and whether you hear it in one ear or both ears.

How you respond when the fork is struck both behind your ear and on your head will help determine whether you have sensorineural or conductive hearing loss, and whether it affects one ear (unilateral) or both ears (bilateral).

Speech reception threshold testing

This test is similar to pure-tone testing, but rather than beep sounds it uses speech. You wear headphones and the audiologist will say different words at different volumes, which play through the headphones.

When you hear the word, you repeat it. This will help to identify if you have trouble hearing speech, and whether you struggle with particular speech sounds.

You might have speech testing in a noisy environment to identify if hearing speech and conversations is difficult when it’s noisy.

Tympanometry

This is a type of middle ear hearing test, and it’s used to check for any problems with your eardrum.

It involves having a small probe placed into your ear canal. The probe is attached to a device that pushes air into your ear, and your eardrum moves back and forth in response.

The way your eardrum moves is recorded on a graph, and your audiologist can use the readings to determine if there’s a problem with your eardrum. These include a tear or hole in your eardrum, fluid in your middle ear, a build-up of wax deep in your ear canal, or an infection.

Acoustic reflex measures

Another type of middle ear hearing test, this one tests how your ear responds to very loud sounds.

Inside your ear is a tiny muscle that tightens or contracts when you hear a loud noise. It’s an automatic response, or a reflex, and how much this muscle moves in response to noise is called your acoustic reflex.

In an acoustic reflex test, sounds will play through a probe inside your ear. The audiologist will measure how loud a sound it takes for your acoustic reflex kicks in.

That can help identify how bad your hearing loss is. If you have very severe hearing loss you might not have any acoustic reflex.

Otoacoustic emissions test (OAE test)

The OAE test is used to assess how well your inner ear, or cochlea works. Like with other hearing tests, a small probe is placed into your ear, and sounds are played through it.

In normal hearing, when you hear a noise your inner ear produces very quiet sounds back to the middle ear in response to the noise. These are called otoacoustic emissions, or OAEs.

During an OAE test, the probe picks up these emissions when you hear the sounds, and they’re recorded on a monitor.

Hearing loss can be measured according to how loud sound needs to be for you to hear it, known as hearing loss range (decibel hearing loss, or dBHL).

If your hearing loss range is greater than 20-40 dBHL – meaning it’s mild to moderate – you won’t produce OAEs.

Auditory brainstem response testing

This kind of test is used to detect problems with the way the inner ear sends signals to the brain, and the brain’s response to them. They are normally used to screen for congenital hearing loss in babies when they are born, and are often given to children at school.

What happens after my hearing test?

Whether you have all of these tests or just one or two of them will depend on your individual circumstances.

When you’ve undergone the hearing loss tests you need, your audiologist will look at all the results together to get a broad picture of:

• Whether you have hearing loss
• What type of hearing loss you have
• What’s causing your hearing loss
• The degree of hearing loss
• Whether one or both of your ears are affected (unilateral or bilateral)
• Whether your hearing loss is likely to be permanent

The test results can also help identify what kind of treatment you are likely to benefit from.

Treatment options will depend on all of these factors, but will also take into account your preferences.

Often, the best treatment will be to wear a hearing aid. They work by amplifying sound, making it louder and enabling you to hear more clearly.

If you are diagnosed with very severe or profound hearing loss, you might be a candidate for a cochlear implant.