Audiology is the study of hearing, balance, and related disorders. An audiologist is a health care professional trained to diagnose, manage, and treat these conditions in people of all ages. The purpose of an audiology appointment is to accurately measure your hearing ability and determine the underlying cause of any difficulties you may be experiencing. Understanding the steps involved can help alleviate anxiety and prepare you for a comprehensive assessment. This evaluation is the first step toward finding personalized solutions for better communication and ear health.
Preparing for Your Visit
Organizing personal information ensures the audiologist has a complete picture of your health history. Compile a detailed list of all current medications, including over-the-counter drugs and supplements, as some substances can affect hearing. Also gather medical records detailing chronic conditions, past ear infections, or surgeries, as these issues can contribute to hearing loss.
Preparing a precise timeline of your symptoms is helpful for diagnosis. Note when you first noticed a change in hearing, whether the loss was sudden or gradual, and which specific environments cause the most difficulty (e.g., telephone conversations or loud restaurants). Finally, bring administrative documents such as insurance information, any necessary referral letters, and a list of questions about your hearing health.
The Diagnostic Testing Process
The appointment begins with otoscopy, a visual inspection of the outer ear and ear canal. The audiologist uses an otoscope to check for visible issues like excess earwax, foreign objects, or damage to the eardrum. This physical check helps rule out blockages that could interfere with the accuracy of subsequent hearing tests.
You will then move into a sound-treated booth, a quiet room designed to eliminate external noise, where you will wear specialized headphones or insert earphones. The next step is pure-tone audiometry, which measures your hearing sensitivity across a range of pitches, or frequencies, from low to high. During this test, you will hear a series of faint beeps and are instructed to signal immediately, usually by pressing a button or raising your hand, the moment you detect the sound.
The audiologist systematically reduces the volume of each tone to find your hearing threshold, which is the softest level at which you can hear the sound. This process is performed for each ear separately, using both air conduction (through the headphones) and bone conduction (using a small vibrator placed behind the ear). Bone conduction bypasses the outer and middle ear to test the inner ear directly, allowing the audiologist to determine the location of any identified hearing loss.
Following the pure-tone test, speech recognition testing assesses your ability to understand language. You will listen to recorded words or sentences presented at various volumes and be asked to repeat them back to the audiologist. This evaluation often includes a test in a noisy background to simulate real-world listening challenges, providing insight into how well you can process speech when background noise is present.
A quick procedure called tympanometry checks the health and function of your middle ear. A small, soft-tipped probe is placed snugly in the ear canal, creating an airtight seal. The device then generates a low-pitched tone and gently changes the air pressure within the canal. You may feel a brief pressure sensation, similar to the feeling experienced during an airplane takeoff or landing, as the eardrum moves in response to the pressure changes.
Understanding the Results and Treatment Plan
Once all diagnostic tests are complete, the audiologist will review the results, which are plotted on a graph called an audiogram. This chart visually maps your hearing thresholds, with the vertical axis representing the intensity (decibels) and the horizontal axis representing the frequency (Hertz). The audiogram reveals the exact degree of hearing loss, ranging from mild to profound, and the type of loss, such as sensorineural, conductive, or mixed.
The audiologist uses this detailed information to provide a specific diagnosis and explain how your results correlate with your daily listening struggles. Based on the findings, a personalized management or treatment plan will be discussed. This plan may include recommendations for hearing aids or other assistive listening devices. If the results suggest a medical condition is causing the hearing difficulty, the audiologist may provide a referral to an otolaryngologist (ENT physician) for further medical evaluation.