Referral via Ear, Nose and Throat - The Hearing Assessment Appointment

This appointment will last approximately 15 minutes. The audiologist will explain the procedure to. The procedures carried out during your appointment may feel slightly strange on occasion but they are entirely safe and do not cause any discomfort.

The audiologist will look in your ears using an otoscope.

The hearing test is administered in a soundproof booth with a set of headphones over the ears. These are connected to an audiometer. The audiometer produces tones at specific frequencies and set levels to each ear independently.

The audiologist plots the loudness (in decibels) on an audiogram (graph). The person having their hearing tested will show that they have heard the tone by pressing a button. As the test progresses, the audiologist plots these responses on the audiogram.

In order to determine what kind of hearing loss is present, a bone conduction hearing test is performed. In this test, a small bone conductor is placed behind the ear. The bone conductor vibrates at specific frequencies, and the person being tested hears tones or beeps just like in the test with headphones.

As soon as the tests are completed, the audiologist will either print out a copy of the Hearing Test for you to take to the ENT ( Ear, Nose and Throat ) Department for the Consultant / Registrar or send it electronically.