Diagnostic Hearing Test
Your Diagnostic Hearing Test at Auckland Hearing
Our main focus at Auckland Hearing is assisting Adults with hearing loss to improve their communication with family, friends and colleagues. The initial hearing test will help us to understand your hearing loss and from there we can discuss your hearing needs. If required you will be referred to a Doctor or specialist for further assessment.
A diagnostic hearing assessment for a GP or ENT specialist (includes report) will take 30 to 60 minutes. If hearing test was recommended by a GP or Specialist or if a referral is required, we will send a report with the hearing results.
If you would like to have an experience listening through some hearing aids, please let us know at the time we book the appointment as we will set aside 90 mins (no extra cost.)
A full hearing assessment is completed by the audiologist to establish hearing levels. This hearing test allows us to see where in your ear the hearing loss is coming from. The diagnostic hearing assessment is a battery of tests and assessments, these include:
Otoscopy
We look in your ear to check your ear canal is clear and have a look at your eardrum. We have a video otoscope and can show you a picture of your eardrum.
Pure Tone Hearing Test
We measure the quietest sounds you can hear at a number of frequencies (pitches). This gives us a graph called an audiogram. We test your overall hearing of each ear, then directly measure your hearing in the inner ear (bone conduction); this helps us understand the cause of the hearing loss.
Speech audiometry
We ask you to repeat back single words heard through the headphones; this helps us get a good understanding of how well you hear and interpret speech.
Immittance measures
A tympanogram measures how well your eardrum moves, using pressure in your ear canal. This test lets us know if there is fluid behind your eardrum (glue ear) or if there is a hole in the eardrum. We also measure the contraction of a small muscle in the middle ear which contracts in response to loud sounds – this is called an acoustic reflex.
After testing your hearing we will explain your degree of hearing loss and possible causes. If needed we write a report back to your GP or refer you to a specialist in the hospital or privately if needed. Hearing loss may be described as:
Conductive – where sound is blocked from reaching the cochlear (outer or middle ear)
Sensori-neural – where the cochlear is not able to detect all the sounds
An auditory processing disorder (APD) – where the brain cannot process the sound it detects.
