Audiology

Injury	Disease	Nutrition	Poison

Symptoms	Surgery	Test	Special Topic

Ear anatomy

Overview

Risks

Results

Audiology

Alternative Names:

Audiometry; Hearing test; Audiography (audiogram)

Normal Values:

The ability to hear a whisper, normal speech, and a ticking watch is normal.
The ability to hear a tuning fork through air and bone is normal.
In detailed audiometry, hearing is normal if tones from 250 Hz through 8000 Hz can be heard at 25 dB or lower.

What abnormal results mean:

There are many different kinds and degrees of hearing loss. Some include only the loss of the ability to hear high or low tones, or the loss of only air or bone conduction. The inability to hear pure tones below 25 dB indicates some extent of hearing loss.

The extent and kind of hearing loss may give clues to the cause and the prognosis (probable outcome).

The following conditions may affect test results:

acoustic neuroma
acoustic trauma
age-related hearing loss
Alport syndrome
labyrinthitis
Meniere's disease
occupational hearing loss
otosclerosis
ruptured or perforated eardrum

Review Date: 1/23/2005
Reviewed By: Kevin Fung, M.D., FRCS(C), Department of Otolaryngology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.

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