Fifty four percent of the estimated 28 million American patients with hearing loss problems are adults above the age of 65. Thus hearing loss becomes the third most frequent chronic medical condition in America. Different tests are conducted for by audiologists on grown ups for a complete hearing evaluation of their hearing loss. When hearing loss is thus confirmed, a variety of methods like hearing aids, aural habilitation, cochlear implantation etc are employed to set right the impairment. There are a number of factors that cause hearing loss like infection or disease, drugs, continuous and over exposure to noise, trauma or aging process. Occasionally a ringing accompanies the hearing loss. At other times ringing is absent.

The Test Taker

Any person who feels or suspects hearing loss is the patient to undergo hearing tests. Hearing loss is clearly felt when a person finds it difficult to understand the conversation between two people or on phone. It is always better to check up your hearing if you have a family history of adult hearing loss or you are exposed to loud noise during work. A comprehensive hearing tests include the following.

Pure Tone Testing

In this test, your ears are plugged with foam plugs and you are asked by the audiologist to report hearing a series of tones. The audiologist plots the softest sounds that you can hear. He will also test you for many different frequencies with a bone conductor.

Speech Audiometry

Speech audiometry comprises two hearing tests you are first, tested for the softest and when you can repeat words in two syllables. In the second test your comprehension of a speech at a moderate loud level is tested.

Acoustic Immittance Measures

By this adult hearing loss test the movement of the ear drum as well as that of the middle ear is tested by placing a soft plug in the patient s ear. This test is able to detect any problem in the ear drum or middle ear responsible for hearing loss.

Acoustic Reflex Testing

This is a test to determine the function of the middle ear thoroughly. The acoustic reflex of the patient is tested passing several loud tones after placing soft plug into each ear canal.

Specialized Hearing Loss Tests

On the basis of audiometric testing or the patient s own particular case, the audiologist may advice certain specialized tests like Auditory Brainstem Response, Threshold Auditory Brainstem Response, Electrocochleography and Otoacoustic Emissions.

[tags]Audiometry, Electrocochleography[/tags]