Welcome back to the All About Audiology podcast, the podcast that’s well, all about audiology. I’m your host, Dr. Lilach Saperstein. I’m an audiologist who’s passionate about this field because it makes a difference in people’s lives. Understanding how our hearing works, what kind of hearing loss people have and how that effects their communication is the reason I am making this podcast. It’s important to understand what your needs are so that those needs can be met. And it’s especially important if that person is your child or your spouse or your parent, and that’s why I make these episodes.

In the last episode we talked all about hearing loss and it got a bit technical for some of you. But I hope that the information was useful in understanding that if there is damage to the different parts of the ear, it corresponds with different kinds of hearing loss which means that treatments are going to be different. We also talked a little bit about of how there are different levels of hearing loss and that means that different people have different experiences with hearing loss.

Today’s topic is all about, “What to expect at your audiology appointment”. In this episode we are going to be talking about adults and in the next episode we’ll talk about how this appointment is very different for children. So today I’m going to walk you through the different parts of a typical audiology appointment when you’re coming in for your hearing test. There are also different kinds of appointments and we’ll talk about those at the end but in general if you are coming in to an audiologist it’s going to be for a comprehensive, audiological evaluation or a full hearing test.

First and foremost, the audiologist is going to ask you many questions. Sometimes, these questions come in a form when you first come in, an intake form on paper or they’ll ask you the questions in person. What the audiologist is doing is getting a medical history, and specifically a history of your hearing issues or communication trouble, any specific history that’s affecting the head and neck, ear, nose and throat, and talking about your current symptoms.

After a thorough history the audiologist is going to look into your ears with a light, the otoscope, checking the health of the outer ear, the ear canal and looking at the ear drum. Now, for the rest of the testing there is going to be two different kinds of testing. Some are automatic tests that you don’t need to do anything for, just different measurements of your ear and different ways that we can test your hearing without your participation. The second kind is the kind where your participation is required, where you are asked to raise your hand when you hear a sound, a beep or a tone. This kind of testing is done in a sound proof booth and we make sure no other sounds are interfering with the tests from the environment. We do have both of the different kinds of tests because we are getting a full picture and everything needs to match. The audiologist is putting all the different pieces together, like a puzzle and seeing where the breakdown is that needs to be consistent across the different kinds of tests.

As discussed in another podcast, in regards to raising your hand during the test, you absolutely will not be able to hear every single beep that’s presented. That’s actually the point of the test. It’s supposed to be softer than what you are able to hear. We are trying to find your threshold, what’s the softest sound that you can hear. So when you are in there, try to relax and do your best.