Professional and Comprehensive

Hearing Assessments

A Hearing Assessment is a comprehensive assessment of the current state of your hearing system, from outer, to middle and to inner ear. Accurate hearing assessment is essential for high quality outcomes.
Audiology Assessment at Alpha Hearing
The assessment starts with a discussion of what sort of hearing or other related issue is causing concern, and a detailed case history.

Ear Canals

We will examine your ear canals with an otoscope, checking for possible blockages or other factors that may affect the hearing. If wax is present in the ear canal, it will be removed before the hearing test begins.

Audiometry

Audiometry, or the measure of hearing acuity, is measured. We test hearing by presenting pure tones through headphones, while you are seated in a soundproof booth. You will be asked to respond each time you hear a tone by pressing a response button. The softest sounds that elicit a response are known as thresholds. These thresholds are recorded on an audiogram for each test frequency. This provides a reliable and accurate test of your hearing, free from errors caused by excessive ambient noise.

Speech audiometry uses particular word tests instead of tones. This adds another dimension to our testing because it tests not only the ability to detect a sound, but also the ability to understand it. It provides us with a measure of speech clarity in each ear.

Tympanometry

Tympanometry is a measure of how well the middle ear system is working. Using a special device called a tympanometer, which safely pressurizes the ear canal while presenting a tone, we are able to determine how well the ear drum is functioning. This adds important diagnostic information to the assessment as some types of hearing loss can be affected by poor middle ear function.

Audiogram and Results

A discussion of the results follows, where the audiogram (graph of the hearing results) is clearly explained, as well as how the hearing system works and how your hearing system is currently functioning. Depending on the outcome of the results, appropriate recommendations will be discussed and presented to you based on your specific needs and goals.