The ear enables you to hear what goes on around you. One of the five senses in an individual is his or her ability to hear. The body, with the help of the ears, picks up vibrations and sound waves. We cannot see sound, but can feel it through vibrations. Frequency simply refers to the number of vibrations produced in a second. Each sound has a different frequency.
Our ears are able to hear frequencies which can be anything from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. This upper limit, however, diminishes as we get older. Our ability to hear can also decrease if our ears are damaged due to exposure to loud sounds such as rock concerts. It is found that the hearing range in women is much better than that in men. With the help of a hearing test, doctors are able to find your sensitivity to hearing at various frequencies. An audiologist performs this hearing test and uses an audiometer to evaluate your response to sound at different frequencies.
The hearing test is quite simple. The audiologist begins by looking into your ears to figure out if there are any irregularities in your eardrum or ear canal. He/she does this with the help of an otoscope, which is a cone-shaped instrument with a light on one end. He/she will also want information about the noises that you hear daily, both at work and outside, as well as your medical history.
During this hearing test you are asked to sit in a room that is soundproof and wear a set of headphones. These headphones, in turn, connect to an audiometer. As an alternative to headphones, you may have insert earphones made of foam placed in your ears. Tones are produced by the audiometer independently to each ear. These tones are of frequencies that are specific and of set volume levels.
The loudness is plotted by the audiologist in decibels. Those undergoing this test will either raise their hand to indicate that the tone has been heard by them or will press a button. As the test goes ahead points continue to be plotted on a graph by the audiologist. The x-axis is used to plot the frequency, while the y-axis the loudness. A line is used to join the points after each frequency is tested.
You audiologist at a glance will be able to identify the frequencies that are not heard properly and also how much hearing loss, if any, is present. You will also be administered a speech test which would help in determining the level at which speech can be detected and understood. Other hearing tests may be performed depending on what your test results are.