We’ll ask you a few simple questions about your lifestyle, family history and whether you have difficulty hearing in any specific situations. Hearing loss is different for each person, so we’ll need to understand your lifestyle to make sure we find the best solution if you have a hearing loss.
Then we’ll take a good look inside your ear canal with using an otoscope. We’ll be checking the eardrums and outer ear for signs of damage or infection.
Next, we’ll test your hearing. Wearing headphones, you’ll hear different sounds, played in one ear or the other. We’ll ask you to push a button each time you hear a sound, so we can see how well you hear at different levels and pitches.
We will also conduct what we call a ‘Speech and Understanding Assessment’. A series of words and sounds are performed at a varying level of loudness, pitch and intensity. Here, you will learn at what level of sound you can no longer understand speech very well and this test determines what level of hearing loss you have.
As we understand your hearing loss more, we’ll work out the best course of action for you. Your hearing care expert will allow you to test hearing aids, giving you an idea of just how much sound you have been missing and the potential benefits of wearing hearing aids. Find out more about our what happens at a hearing test.
