Sudden hearing loss tests

A person has the greatest chance of stopping hearing loss when it is still early as there may still be the possibility of treating and even reversing it all together. 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.

For some a person that becomes sick with something may be the reason for the hearing problem. Besides illnesses another thing that can cause loss of hearing is taking certain medication known to affect hearing like aspirin. Another very common way of a person losing their sense of hearing is by injuring themselves.

Hearing loss can be acquired from being in a situation wherein the noise pollution is too loud. Being near an airport, freeway or even a railroad can be considered as environmental noise pollution that are dangerous to one's hearing. Noise pollution doesn't just mean common things such as the ones mentioned above, it can also mean more infrequent occurrences such as sounds from gunfire.

No matter what causes hearing loss, the easiest way to cure it is through prevention and the only way to prevent it is by first detecting it. A hearing disorder that is left to progress and age is more difficult to treat than one that is treated early on. The only way to detect hearing problems is by performing hearing tests on the person.

An audiologist uses an audiometer to diagnose a person's hearing sensitivity to sounds at different frequencies. A person is asked to sit in a booth that is soundproof, while wearing headphone jacked up to the audiometer. The audiologist then operates the audiometer and makes the patient hear sounds at different levels and frequencies.

The subject inside the booth, should acknowledge hearing the sound by pressing on a button. The data obtained from the test will be made into a graph. A look at the graph will easily reveal if the person actually has hearing loss and what frequencies and decibel levels.

Two other tests called the Weber and Rinne tests are performed to test for the type of hearing loss a person is afflicted with. Both Weber and Rinne tests uses a tuning fork to figure out the type of hearing loss. A patient goes through the Weber test to see if they do indeed have hearing loss and the Rinne test to find out which type.

A tuning fork is placed in the forehead, at a point equidistant from both ears for the Weber test to work. If the patient has normal hearing or symmetrical hearing or has the same level of hearing loss for both ears, the sound heard will be the same in both ears. If the sound is heard differently in one ear than the other then the person is said to have asymmetric hearing loss.

In addition to the Weber test, if the Rinne test is followed, it is even possible to detect if a person has conductive or sensorineural hearing loss too. 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.

Article Source: http://gamblingarticlessite.com

Visit this site for further information on hearing testing. To understand more about australian hearing visit this resource.

Please Rate this Article

5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5 

Not yet Rated