Monday, April 5, 2010

Before You Get Started On Your Hearing Tests

By Anthony Wright

As with any disease the best way to stop hearing loss is to detect it while it is still in its infancy stage and treat it as is. Some things that can cause hearing loss are diseases, illnesses and bing bumped on the head. A person who has been born with improperly formed ear or other body parts that affect hearing may be handicapped with a hearing loss.

It is obvious that even small things like a flu or a cold can affect a person's hearing. Sometimes, being sick is not the reason your hearing is affected and maybe it is because of the medicine you are taking. Loss of hearing can be caused by bumping your head the wrong way or just really hard.

A person who is regularly in an environment where the noise is extremely loud can also be inflicted with hearing loss. Loudspeakers, noisy people even are examples of noise pollution or environmental noise. Gunfire, explosions, fireworks do not occur very often in a living in a city scenario, but can be extremely dangerous to the ears.

Chances of success with hearing loss is best while it is still in its early stages, so detecting the disorder is the key to success. As a rule of thumb most health problems are easier to treat today than tomorrow. The problem causing the hearing impairment is diagnosed through hearing tests performed by a doctor.

A person who undergoes a hearing test should not be surprised when an audiometer is used to check his or her hearing. Tests with an audiometer involve a person sitting in a soundproof booth wearing headphones that are connected to an audiometer. The physician or attending technician works the audiometer so that the patient hears different decibel level sounds and frequencies.

Once the person hears to sound he or she will need to respond by pressing on a button to let the technician know. The data obtained from the test will be made into a graph. Looking at the graph will show whether a person is really suffering from hearing loss and if so, what part of the sound spectrum.

Two other tests called the Weber and Rinne tests are performed to test for the type of hearing loss a person is afflicted with. The Weber and Rinne tests both employ the use of tuning forks to determine the gravity of hearing loss. The Weber test can be a quick test used to check for presence of hearing loss, but only the Rinne test can determine which type is present and at which ear.

The Weber test is performed by placing a tuning fork equidistant from the left and right ears. When a person hears the sound coming from the tuning fork is the same in both ears, then it can be concluded the person either has no hearing loss or the same in both ears. Only when a person hears two different sounds can a person be sure he or she has hearing loss and asymmetric at that.

When the Rinne test is performed in connection with the Weber test, it is possible to detect whether the person has conductive hearing loss only or has sensorineural hearing loss as well. It may not seem like it, but with the two tests it is possible to even detech which ear has what type of hearing loss. The best way to test for hearing loss is still with the use of all three tests.

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