Hearing tests check how well your ears and brain detect and process sound.
They can range from quick screenings to detailed audiology exams, depending on symptoms and risk factors.

1. Screening Tests

• Whisper test – provider whispers words from a short distance.

• Tuning fork tests (Rinne & Weber) – help determine if loss is conductive or sensorineural.

• Often done in clinics as a quick first step.

2. Pure-Tone Audiometry

• Most common formal hearing test.

• You wear headphones and listen for beeps at different pitches (frequencies) and loudness (decibels).

• Results plotted on an audiogram:

  • Normal: 0–20 dB

  • Mild loss: 21–40 dB

  • Moderate: 41–70 dB

  • Severe: 71–90 dB

  • Profound: >90 dB

3. Speech Audiometry

• Measures how well you hear and understand speech.

• Speech reception threshold (SRT) – softest level where you can repeat words.

• Word recognition score (WRS) – % of words understood at a comfortable loudness.

4. Tympanometry

• Uses gentle air pressure changes to check:

  • Eardrum movement

  • Middle ear fluid

  • Eustachian tube function

• Helpful for diagnosing ear infections or blockages.

5. Otoacoustic Emissions (OAE)

• Soft sounds played into ear; a microphone detects echoes from the cochlea’s hair cells.

• Often used for newborn hearing screening or to detect early inner ear damage.

6. Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR)

• Electrodes measure brain activity in response to sound.

• Used for babies, unresponsive patients, or diagnosing nerve pathway problems.

When to Get Tested

• Trouble following conversations, especially in noise.

• Turning up TV/radio volume higher than others prefer.

• Ringing in the ears (tinnitus).

• History of loud noise exposure.

• Family history of hearing loss.

• Over age 50 (routine screening).