Raise your hand if you’re a fan of the word test. Going once… Going twice… Yeah, neither are we.
Test. It is just four letters but enough to shorten our breaths as our minds race to press that internal “postpone” button as fast as we can. Especially when it comes to medical tests — famous for the poking, prodding, and unfortunately for some of us, pain.
Unless you’re talking about the hearing test — the one test that allows that dreaded word to redeem itself once and for all.
Hearing tests are simple and pain-free — so much so, that they are often called hearing evaluations. (Joking aside, it is because the actual hearing test is just one part of a comprehensive and thorough process.) The goal of your hearing evaluation is to provide you with the best hearing aid technology necessary to support your hearing loss and enable you to communicate more easily.
Read on to learn what you can expect during a typical hearing test, or hearing evaluation, from a licensed hearing aid professional:
Your painless hearing evaluation
- Health and hearing chat
To begin, your hearing aid professional will conduct a case history. They will ask you questions about your hearing and overall health to help accurately assess your hearing loss.
- Ear meet-and-greet
Your hearing aid professional will look inside your ears using an otoscope. While checking the health of your ear canals and eardrums, they will ensure there is no debris that may affect your hearing test results. If your ear(s) have excess ear wax or other debris, they may remove it or refer you to a physician who will. (Heads up — removing earwax may be uncomfortable but shouldn’t hurt.)
- Pain-free hearing test (aka “Moment of Truth”)
You will be seated in a sound-treated test booth or quiet room. Here, your hearing aid professional will either place earphones on your ears or inserts into your ears.
They will first examine how well you hear tones. Your hearing aid professional will play a series of them at different frequencies (or “pitches”) in each ear, separately. Your job is to simply respond to the tones you hear by raising your hand or pushing a button.
Next, your hearing aid professional will look at your ability to hear speech. They will ask you to repeat words spoken into your earphones or ear inserts.
- Further pain-free testing (if needed)
Depending on how things go, your hearing aid professional may need to conduct further testing, like tympanometry. This examines your middle ear health by placing an insert into your ear. The insert then releases a puff of air to measure the movement of your eardrum. From this test, your hearing aid professional can determine if there is fluid behind your eardrum and/or other concerns.
- Results. Recommendations. Relief
After all testing is complete, your hearing aid professional will walk you through your test results, discuss any next steps, and provide recommendations for your hearing health. That’s it. (Still not even a grimace.)
There you have it – hearing tests are typically simple and painless! Hearing tests are the first step on a journey to significantly enhance the quality of life through better hearing! Remember, it never hurts to get that peace of mind in knowing where your hearing health is at.
Find out what noises you may be missing! Schedule an appointment today for a hearing consultation.