Almost 29 million adults in America could benefit from hearing aids, and maybe you—or one of your loved ones—suspect that you might be one of them. If you want to know if you have hearing loss, the first step is to evaluate your hearing, and you may be wondering how best to do that.
What Is a Hearing Screening?
Do an online search for “hearing screening online,” and you’ll be met with plenty of links to free online hearing screeners, and many from reputable sites. These hearing screeners allow you to do a quick at-home test to detect hearing loss. To complete one, you’ll need headphones or earbuds. The online test will play a series of tones through your headphones, and you will adjust the volume until it is the softest level at which you can still hear the tones.
The results of your hearing screening will simply state if you “passed” or “failed,” but the results won’t indicate the severity of your hearing loss or indicate if there’s any asymmetry in your hearing loss (e.g., hearing loss is more profound in one ear compared to the other).
What Is a Hearing Test?
A hearing test is done under the supervision and guidance of an audiologist, a hearing health specialist. Like the screener, you’ll wear headphones and listen to a series of tones, this time indicating when you hear the sound play. This is called a pure-tone test. The results of a hearing test are known as an audiogram.
There are other tests an audiologist can do to determine the depth and breadth of your hearing needs, such as speech testing, bone conduction tests or tympanometry. All of these are noninvasive and easy, and they can help discover nuances in your hearing loss, such as the cause and type.
Should I Use a Hearing Screening or a Professional Hearing Test?
A hearing screening is valuable for the simple answer to the question: “Do I have hearing loss or not?” Beyond that, the results from a hearing screening are not prescriptive. They cannot tell you what type of hearing loss you have, how profound it is or what the best course of treatment would be.
A hearing test, on the other hand, contains nuanced information about your hearing loss. You cannot treat hearing loss without a formal, complete audiogram to guide your hearing care.
You may use a hearing screening for informational purposes, e.g., to determine whether you want to follow up with a hearing test at an audiologist’s office.
Scheduling a Hearing Test
If you’re ready to schedule a hearing test with an audiologist, contact Waterville Audiology to set an appointment. Our expert team is ready to help you on your hearing loss journey.