Hearing Test
Learn about Colorado Ear Care’s better hearing process.
Hearing Test
Learn about Colorado Ear Care’s better hearing process.
Before buying a hearing aid, you need a hearing test. Hearing tests identify the extent of your hearing loss and the demands of your lifestyle. With that information, our audiologists can help you find the best hearing aid.
Better hearing starts with a hearing test.
What to expect at your hearing test appointment
The initial consultation with an audiologist involves three basic steps: case history, testing and recommendation. This appointment usually takes a little over an hour and is designed to give you a thorough understanding of how we can help you with your hearing concerns.
Case History
This step is vital for understanding your unique situation.
- How long have you struggled with hearing loss?
- Which situations are most difficult for you?
- Do you have a history of noise exposure?
- Do you have ringing in your ears?
- Do your ears hurt or feel full?
- Do you also struggle with dizziness?
We ask these and many other questions to help us understand how we can help.
Testing
There are three parts to the hearing test: checking for a mechanical problem, measuring your hearing sensitivity and testing to see how well you understand speech.
- Checking for a mechanical problem– We first look in your ears to make sure your ears are free from wax and debris. If needed, the audiologist can remove the wax. We then use a tympanometer to painlessly measure if your ear drum and middle ear bones are working properly.
- Measuring hearing sensitivity– While seated inside of a soundproof booth, the audiologist presents a series of tones at different volume levels through a set of headphones. This information shows whether you have a hearing loss and if so, the severity and pitch at which it occurs.
- Speech understanding test– This test quantifies how well you can understand speech and how loud it needs to be in order to maximize your understanding ability. We also measure how well you can understand speech in a noisy environment. This information is vital when determining if, and how much hearing aids will help you.
Recommendation
Once your hearing ability has been determined, we will explain the results to you and recommend next steps.
If a hearing loss is detected that can be treated medically, we will refer you back to your physician or suggest a visit with an Otolaryngologist.
If the hearing loss is not medically treatable, we will discuss hearing aid options with you including size, technology, price and insurance coverage. In most cases, we can even arrange for a one-week hearing aid demo. This demo gives you the opportunity to try a set of hearing aids in your usual environments before deciding to move forward with the hearing aid fitting process.