Having Your Hearing Assessed: What to Expect

With adults typically waiting many years to get their hearing checked after noticing an issue, it’s little surprise that having a hearing test is a daunting prospect for many.

However, with research increasingly pointing to deteriorating hearing in later life being linked to other health conditions, social isolation and even mental decline, adding a regular hearing check to your to-do list may make a lasting difference for your quality of life – now, and in the future.

What can I expect from a hearing assessment at Hear and Say?

Hear and Say offers comprehensive hearing tests and assessments for anyone within the community, whether you are unsure if you have a hearing loss, having trouble with your hearing, or just want a baseline measure of your hearing for future comparisons.

We caught up with Julie Decker, Head of Audiology, who explained the ins and outs of the thorough 90-minute assessment of your hearing – ultimately, leaving you feeling informed about your hearing health and any next steps.

Julie explained that our comprehensive hearing assessment process begins with a discussion of your hearing health history, lifestyle and communication goals, followed by a range of painless, non-invasive assessments.

These include:

An otoscopic examination, to view your ear canal and tympanic membrane.
A tympanometry assessment, which measures how well your ear drum is moving and determines any fluid or congestion in your middle ear space.
Testing of your acoustic reflexes.
A pure tone audiometry assessment, which establishes the softest sounds you can hear across a range of pitches. This will be tested with both “air conduction” (via headphones/earphones) and “bone conduction” (via a band worn across the head).
A speech discrimination assessment both in quiet conditions (testing how well you can understand different speech sounds) and in background noise (which shows how well your brain can process speech in noisy/group conversational environments).

Your audiologist will then discuss your results with you, any recommendations for hearing aids or rehabilitation technology and any further investigation that may be indicated.

As a 100% independent clinic, we can offer you hearing technology options from all major manufacturers. This enables you to make an informed, empowered decision about your hearing loss, based on the devices which will work best for you, your lifestyle and communication goals.

“In the era of information overload, there is often a surplus of information and false hope available, which only adds to the feelings of desperation and struggle. I would encourage anyone who is feeling challenged by their hearing to reach out. One email is all it took!”

Kath Corcoran, Hear and Say client

Read Kath's story