Audiological Evaluation
Our doctors provide a complete audiological evaluation for you
If you are having hearing difficulties or believe your hearing is impaired due to disease or an injury, a hearing evaluation is your best option. At Excel ENT, our doctors provide a complete audiological evaluation, including testing and establishing details about your family history and hearing needs.
Your evaluation will take about 30 minutes and is designed to provide our specialists with information regarding the type and degree of your hearing loss, as well as what may have caused it. Expect to answer questions about health history, what environments and situations cause you hearing difficulty, and whether family members are frustrated that you don’t understand them.
Your hearing evaluation
- Otoscopy – Ears are checked for wax buildup, fluid in the ear, perforated eardrum, ear canal abnormalities.
- Tympanometry – Tests movement of the eardrum, identifies fluid behind the eardrum, & looks for disorders in the middle ear & the conductive bones.
- Speech test – Using headphones, you will be asked to repeat a series of words to determine if the hearing difficulty has affected your speech.
- Tonal testing – Determines whether you can hear tones at different pitches using headphones or a bone conduction headband.
Your evaluation may also include testing of otoacoustic emissions (sounds originating in the cochlea) and neurological testing of auditory function.
Results of your test will help determine your hearing loss and what treatment options are best for you.
The importance of a baseline hearing test
Children typically experience hearing tests in school, providing a baseline by which a doctor can determine if he or she is having trouble hearing. Adults generally don’t get hearing tests during medical visits because they believe they don’t have a problem. Unfortunately, hearing loss usually happens gradually, and adults don’t realize that their hearing ability has diminished.
Our audiologists recommend adults arrange for a hearing test and have baseline hearing test results established in their medical record so that changes in hearing ability may be identified and diagnosed.