Hearing
testing is a broad term used to generally describe all types of
hearing test procedures used to assess a person's ability to hear soft sounds
or understand spoken words in quiet. Many more in-depth hearing test procedures
are used to more accurately assess hearing abilities dependent on the age,
and/or the mental ability of the patient. Furthermore, additional tests are
used to assess areas not measured using the standard hearing test. Simple
hearing screenings may be useful for identifying a problem, but a full audiological
evaluation is necessary for accurate diagnosis of most hearing problems.
Finally, best results are obtained
by a certified clinical audiologist in a sound treated testing booth.
The initial hearing test procedure
consists of a test battery including:
pure tone air and bone conduction threshold testing
speech reception threshold testing
auditory discrimination ability in quiet, middle ear testing
site of lesion assessment
tests of comfort and discomfort to voices.
More in-depth assessments of
auditory function are sometimes necessary to rule out retrocochlear dysfunction,
e.g., auditory nerve tumors. Some of these tests include: Brainstem Auditory
Evoked Response Testing (BAER), PI/PB Rollover, Discrimination in noise, and
SISI (Short Increment Sensitivity Index). Tests of balance function are also
performed by clinical audiologists. The electronystagmography (ENG) test is
a series of tests used to assess inner ear balance system function using various
visual, positional, and thermal-sensory mechanisms.