Hearing Tests

While a referral isn't always necessary, we do receive many referrals directly from local doctors, specialists and as well from our current patients. Our clinic has state of the art equipment to thoroughly test your hearing, determine what kind of hearing loss you have and what the possible cause may be.

So What Happens During a Hearing Test?

When you arrive for your exam, you will be greeted by the front office staff and asked to fill out several forms, including those that record your personal information, medical history and verify your insurance.

As your exam begins, your audiologist will review your personal information with you and will ask you some questions that are designed to discover the specific types of environments in which you may be experiencing difficulty in hearing.

Next, the audiologist may look into your ears by using an otoscope. This instrument is used to see the ear canal and the ear drum and whether or not there is ear wax obstructing the canal. Sackville Hearing Centre is also equipped with a new video otoscope that displays a real time video of the inside of your ear canal on a computer screen!

You will be seated in a quiet sound insulated booth. Then insert earphones will be placed into your ear canals, that are connected to an audiometer.

The first test is usually speech testing called the speech reception threshold test where you listen to a series of one and two syllable words at different volumes and you will be asked to repeat them. This will determine the level at which you can not only detect, but understand speech.

Next is the pure tone hearing test. The audiometer transmits a series of tones at a variety of volumes into your ears to determine the exact point or “threshold” at which you can hear various frequencies of sounds. When you hear a sound, you will be asked to press a button.

Another test that may be conducted is a speech in noise test referred to as the Quick SIN test. This test will determine how well you hear sentences in a noisy environment.

The results of your tests will be recorded on a form called an audiogram, which will be reviewed with you. The audiogram reflects your hearing loss in frequencies and decibels. You will be shown the type, pattern and degree of hearing loss, as well as the percentage of normal conversational speech that you are still able to hear. If the results suggest the presence of some disease process, the appropriate referral for further medical testing and treatment will be made. The next step is to consider treatment solutions, and amplification options will then be discussed with you.