Good Healthcare Requires Treatment of Your Mind, Body, and Soul

Do You Need To Test Your Hearing Soon?

17 November 2022 by Hugh Larson

If you notice abnormal changes in your hearing, such as struggling to hear your friends speak or listen to music, ask a specialist to test your hearing soon. Hearing loss can occur in anyone, especially the elderly. A hearing test can determine the extent of your hearing loss. Learn more about the causes of hearing loss and how a hearing test can help you below.

What Exactly Is Hearing Loss?

Hearing loss describes the gradual or sudden loss of hearing in one or both ears. Audiologists and other doctors refer to the loss of hearing in one ear as unilateral and the loss of hearing in both ears as bilateral. You can lose your hearing at any stage of life, including later in life. 

Later in life hearing loss, or age-related hearing loss, generally occurs in people over 65 years of age. Age-related hearing loss occurs when the tissues inside your inner ear decline or deteriorate. The large auditory nerve, or sensory nerve, that transmits sound to the brain may also decline or age. The tissues gradually lose their ability to detect and process sound. 

If you suspect you have hearing loss in one or both ears, schedule your hearing test with an audiologist today. 

How Do You Test Your Hearing?

An audiologist may screen your hearing before they test it. A screening determines whether or not you have hearing loss in one or both ears. During the screening, an audiologist may ask you to listen to certain sounds, such as birds chirping or dogs barking. If you can't detect or make out the sounds used in the screening, an audiologist will perform a full hearing test on you.

A doctor can perform several types of full hearing tests on your ears, including an Auditory Brainstem Response test. An Auditory Brainstem Response, or ABR, test evaluates how well the pathways in your brain respond to different types of sounds, including the sounds traveling through your inner ear.

A full hearing test, or evaluation, also allows a specialist to determine the: 

• type or class of hearing loss you currently have in each ear
• the severity of hearing loss you have in each ear
• location of hearing loss you have in each ear

If an audiologist determines you have hearing loss in one or both ears, they'll fit you for hearing aids. Hearing aids amplify or increase sound so that it reaches your brain on time. If you need other treatments to improve your hearing, a doctor will prescribe them to you.

Learn more about hearing loss and the tests used to detect it by visiting a clinic like Accurate Hearing Technology Inc.   

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