HEARING TESTS
HEARING TESTS
A hearing test provides an evaluation of the sensitivity of a person's sense of hearing and is most often performed by an audiologist using an audiometer. There are other hearing tests :-
Ear examination-Prior to the hearing test itself, the ears of the client are usually examined with an otoscope to make sure they are free of wax, that the eardrum is intact, the ears are not infected, and the middle ear is free of fluid. The most common reasons to develop hearing loss due to genetic disorder, ageing problems, exposure to noise pollution, infections, birth complications, trauma to the ear, and certain medications or toxins.
Pure tone audiometry-The standard and most common type of hearing test is pure tone audiometry, which measures the air and bone conduction thresholds for each ear in a set of 8 standard frequencies from 250Hz to 8000Hz. The test is conducted in a sound booth using either a pair of foam inserts or supraural headphones connected to an external audiometer.
Hearing in Noise -The Hearing in Noise Test (HINT) measures a person's ability to hear speech in quiet and in noise.In the test, the patient is required to repeat sentences both in a quiet environment and with competing noise being presented from different directions.
Modified Rhyme Test
The Modified Rhyme Test (MRT) is defined in the American National Standard ANSI S3.2 Methods for Measuring the Intelligibility of Speech Over Communication Systems. The method consists of 50 sets of six monosyllabic words that differ in initial or final consonant . The listener is typically presented with the on of the words in the couplet preceded by a phrase, "You will mark the word ___". The six words that rhyme are presented to the listener to select what they believe to be the correct answer.
Words-in-Noise Test -The Words-in-Noise Test (WIN) uses monosyllabic words presented at seven different signal to noise ratios with masking noise - typically speech spectrum noise. The WIN test will yield a score for a person's ability to understand speech in a noisy background. Unlike a pure-tone audiogram, the WIN test may provide a more functional test of a person's hearing in a situation that is likely to occur.
Weber and Rinne-A complete hearing evaluation involves several other tests as well. In order to determine what kind of hearing loss is present, a bone conduction hearing test is administered. In this test, a vibrating tuning fork is placed behind the ear, on the mastoid process.
In-situ audiometry using mobile applications -The availability of stereo headphones and smartphones or tablets equipped with sound reproduction systems led to the appearance of new audiologic diagnostic methods which help people identify their degree of hearing loss without assistance. For users of these mobile devices, there are a number of applications available with a function for audiometric hearing testing. There are also hearing aid applications with a built-in hearing test for making hearing aid adjustments.
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