When you visit your audiologist and they carry out a hearing test, they are likely to go through the results with you. After your audiologist gets your results back, they will discuss the chart and what it means for you. If you are not too sure on what to look out for then this guide will help you.

The Different Types of Hearing Loss

The results of your hearing test will help determine which category you will then be placed in. Once your audiologist has conducted the various tests it will give a better idea of what type of hearing loss you may have. It could be one of the following:

  • Slight hearing loss
  • Mild hearing loss
  • Moderate hearing loss
  • Severe hearing loss
  • Profound hearing loss

Looking At the Audiogram 

Your hearing test result will likely be presented in the form of an audiogram. This will be a chart with a graph whereby numbers are presented along the top representing low frequency sounds. The results will then be marked off for each ear. This data will help your audiologist to determine whether both ears are able to hear the same range of sounds and frequencies.

If you notice a drop on your graph results this will indicate where you strained to hear the sounds, they played. So ideally you want a steady line of results on your graph as opposed to a dipped graph.

The Significance of Circles and Lines in Your Results 

If you notice that your hearing test results have a lot of circles and lines in it, then you may be wondering what this means. When your audiologist carries out a hearing test, they will most likely indicate any written response from your left ear with a blue cross on your results and anything for your right ear with a red circle. So, the more you see of either the blue cross or red circle will indicate which ear you responded well to any sound that your audiologist played or tested.

Providing A More Accurate Insight into Your Hearing Ability 

The benefits of having a hearing test done is that your audiologist can then compile together all the results. With the audiogram results they will then be able to piece together any issues that might have arisen when you took a bone conduction test as well as the air conduction. The graph presents all the data from your hearing test into place which makes it a lot easier for them and for yourself to be able to see which ear is causing you problems.

Tags: hearing test basics