What Will Your Hearing Test Results Tell the Audiologist?

Going for a hearing test is excellent for your health. However, the results of the test can be a little hard to understand, which is why we’ve written a guide down below. Understanding an audiogram can be easy when you know what you’re looking at. And remember, your local audiologist will always be happy to take questions if you need something explained. Let’s go into some details.

How Well You Pick Up on Frequencies and Their Sound Level

The first thing the results of your hearing test will show is how well you hear, in terms of frequencies and their intensities. Frequency concerns the pitch at which a sound is made, such as high pitch and low pitch and the intensity is the volume of it.

On the audiogram, these will be measured in the amount of frequency, to showcase the pitches you can hear and then in decibels (dBs), to determine how loud the sounds you heard were.

An audiologist will put on a range of different frequencies to see how you react, and how low or high you’re able to hear. Depending on your responses, they’ll be able to see whether you’re living with normal hearing for your age group and lifestyle or whether your hearing has changed and is below where it should be concerning these different pitches.

Whether You’re Living with Hearing Loss

Once the test is over and the audiogram has been made, your audiologist will then be able to see if you’re living with a degree of hearing loss and also what kind. As mentioned above, your results will show what pitches you’re able to hear and at what volumes. When it comes to determining your hearing level, each section can mean a different thing.

The decibel level will be clearly posted on the side of the audio chart; if you were unable to hear a certain threshold during the test, this could be a sign of hearing loss. Your hearing threshold concerns the most subtle sounds you can hear at the most extreme frequency.

You can also go through your results yourself. Reading from top to bottom, the sounds that were either low or soft in nature will be listed first, with deeper or louder sounds listed last.

That Your Left and Right Ears May Be Different

A hearing test often finds that hearing levels in either ear are different. This could be a result of lifestyle habits, such as using headphones irregularly or working in a noisy environment. The results of a hearing test will thus allow your audiologist to see if either of your ears requires support in hearing at a normal level.

If you’re curious about what a hearing test involves, and you want to know about what an audiogram shows, be sure to get in contact with an audiologist. The more you know about how your hearing can change, the better suited you’ll be to protect it.