Hearing Tests....Who has had them? (1 Viewer)

[Jagan Seshadri]

I'm going to have a hearing test done to see how well I actually hear versus how well I think I hear. This could have serious consequences on my audio purchases
Who here has had a hearing test done? Do we have any bats in the audience?
-JNS

 

[Ben Motley]

Huh?

 

[Tim Hoover]

My last hearing test, which was two years ago, indicated responsiveness from 18Hz up to 23kHz! And if that's not good enough for you, I've also played drums for years!!!

 

[NickSo]

Ben: From your response, i'd think you'd needa see an optometrist rather than taking an ear test

 

[Martin Fontaine]

I'm having one tomorrow morning. The reason is that I had a punctured eardrum then had an operation to fix that. Now, almost a year later, I'm having another hearing test to see if the operation improved my hearing.

 

[Dean DeMass]

I have one every year. It is required since the environment I work at is very loud. My hearing hasn't diminished at all since I have been here (almost 6 years).

-Dean-

 

[Jefferson]

I havent thought about those tests since I was
in elementary school (so I guess it is time I had one).
I remember them sitting us down with headphones
and we had to raise a hand when we heard something.
Is that still the way they do that?

 

[Brian Perry]

Are there any self-tests available for hearing, or does one need to visit a doctor?

 

[Ron-P]

I just had one done about 2 months ago during my physical. I've still got perfect hearing.
Peace Out~

 

[Dean DeMass]

just had one done about 2 months ago during my physical. I've still got perfect hearing.

Its the beer Ron. My hearing is still perfect as well and I believe it is from the beer.
-Dean-

 

[Mark C Sherman]

I have not had one since High School. I guess I should go and have one done. Being a Drummer and all.

 

[Ben Motley]

All kidding aside, I do have a hearing problem, and do wear hearing aids. Yes, I've been to several hearing tests, mostly when I was little, but recently in the past few years, I got fed up being so alienated from society (this damn web doesn't help either lol) that I went to some more tests, and finally got some hearing aids. It makes a world of a difference! Honestly, if you have hearing trouble, it is so worth it to get tested and then get fitted for some aids.
Brian, the tests involve one being confined to a soundproof room. Special headphones are worn, and then the equipment specialists mess around with their dials and you raise your hand when you hear the tones they send through the phones. And you don't have to go to a hospital or doctor's office, there are hearing centers in strip malls and business complexes all over. They're like mall eyeglass stores now. I assume from the use of soundproof areas and the need of some background in using and understanding the results of the equipment, that there isn't a sound (no pun intended)alternative for home testing, but I could be wrong.
Martin, good luck man.

 

[Charles J P]

Ben, you should get some EQs for your hearing aids, then you can buy whatever speakers you want and just EQ your ears for perfect frequency response.

 

[Scott Leopold]

Just make sure you've got an honest doctor. My wife is in the middle of a disability claim right now, and we've been having a world of trouble with two of the doctors she's been dealing with. She had been working as a credit processor (basically, if someone went to the store and their card came up denied, if they called to dispute it, she was who they'd speak to), and had to spend about 8 hours per day on the phone. With the first account she supported, she seldom had any problems. When she first started having hearing problems, they arranged her schedule so that she didn't have to work more than 3 days in a row, and would assign her to non-phone duties if she had a bad day. She switched to a new department, and things got really bad. She was working 4 or 5 days per week, all on the phone, and they were very strict about not allowing the operators to take breaks. (This went on even when she became pregnant--they told her she could take 10 minutes worth of restroom breaks per day, even after she brought in a doctor's note) They insisted that they use handsets instead of headsets--in her previous group, she was allowed to use a headset, which greatly alleviated the problem. She began coming home with headaches and dizzy spells, and her hearing got markedly worse. She attempted to go on part time, but they said they'd need approval from disability for this (sending her through disability also screwed over our chances for a workers comp claim, but that's another story). Disability and her doctors were ready to give her the approval, when they told her that they were cutting out all part time positions, so even with the approval they would not let her have it. As her hearing/ear problems got worse, she was required to get tubes in her ears. Before this could happen, she went on disability due to her pregnancy (she had severe swelling, and they would not allow her to bring in a stool to prop her feet on, so her doctor felt it was best to put her on disability and not risk our daughter's life).

After the pregnancy, she was told that she either had to come back full time, or go on permanent disability. To try to alleviate her problems, she went ahead with the surgery to have the tubes installed. At this time, both her ear specialist and her ear surgeon told her that she couldn't return to work in this position because she could end up losing her hearing, and that she definitely needed another job. She had the tubes put in, and while she was in the recovery room, the surgeon told me that she'd be having dizzy spells and headaches for the next three days, and that she needed to take it easy. I asked what this meant, and he said no housework, no work, no driving. He told me he didn't want to say total bedrest, but he wanted her to lay down and relax as much as possible. I asked if he could call her work & disability and explain this to them, and he agreed. Within 30 minutes he had faxed both, telling them that she was cleared to return to work the very next day--he and his office have both since denied that he told me what he did.

Before and after the surgery, she went to the specialist for hearing tests. These were just two in a long string of tests. She performed the same in each test, and was always told she had perfect hearing. She was concerned by their diagnosis because she always failed sections of the tests. She attempted to get the specialist to fill out disability forms for her, but he always refused. In the same breath, he would tell her that she needed to find a new job, and that she couldn't ever return to her current position, or anything like it. Based on the nasty experiences we had with the surgeon (plus the fact that he tried to charge us for a form he never sent, and that he's no longer covered under our insurance), we decided not to go back to him. Still going through the disability claim, we found we needed to return to the specialist to attempt to get her records and his clearance for her to be off work during the period following her last visit to him, and her first visit back to her primary care physician (her PCP feels her ears are in terrible shape, and was more than willing to fill out all the necessary paperwork for the disability claim). This most recent trip to the specialist, which began with him asking her if she had found another job yet, included another hearing test. Once again, she performed just as she had before, failing on each of the sections she had failed on before. This time, however, his diagnosis was that her hearing was terrible, and he had no idea what was causing it. He agreed to forward his diagnosis, her records, and a note excusing her from work for the requested period. The only difference between this trip and the previous ones was that I was with her (my presence visibly upset the doctor). The day after our visit, the doctor left the country on vacation, and never sent any of the documents he promised us. He'll be back tomorrow, so we'll be trying again.

 

[JimColeman]

No offense man, but if your wife put as much energy into her job as she has trying to get disability she would probably be CEO by now. I have been practicing audiology for 8 years now and have had thousands of patients, both adults and children, with PE tubes. None of these patients would be eligible for disability. What kind of work does your wife do? Even if she had profound sensorineural (nerve damage) hearing loss there is plenty of jobs she could perform.

Oh, and btw, if she has tubes her problem was middle ear dysfunction (not nerve damage). Middle ear dysfunction is generally fluid build up in the middle ear/behind the ear drum. PE (pressure equalization) tubes are used to drain this fluid and prevent further build up. The use of a head set of hand held phone would in now way interfere with this process or further complicate matters.

 

[JimColeman]

My last hearing test, which was two years ago, indicated responsiveness from 18Hz up to 23kHz! And if that's not good enough for you, I've also played drums for years!!!

You must have read the audiogram wrong. Commercial audiometers can only measure between 125Hz and 12KHz.

 

[Jagan Seshadri]

You must have read the audiogram wrong. Commercial audiometers can only measure between 125Hz and 12KHz.

WHAT?
Hell, I know I can hear fine between _those_ frequencies. I was hoping a test would tell me the my full hearing response. I know I can hear beyond 15kHz because I can hear the flyback transformer of my TV, and I can hear that tone that John Lennon added to the end of "A Day in the Life" (before it goes into the gibberish loop).
If what you say is true, I'll save my money and not go for the test.
-JNS

 

[JimColeman]

WHAT?
Hell, I know I can hear fine between _those_ frequencies. I was hoping a test would tell me the my full hearing response. I know I can hear beyond 15kHz because I can hear the flyback transformer of my TV, and I can hear that tone that John Lennon added to the end of "A Day in the Life" (before it goes into the gibberish loop).
If what you say is true, I'll save my money and not go for the test.
-JNS

Well, just because you can hear extremely high and/or low frequencies doesn't mean you have normal hearing at all other frequencies. For example, hearing loss due to excessive noise exposure generally effects hearing between 3000 and 6000 Hz. People with hearing loss due to noise exposure have what is none as a noise notch, normal hearing through 3000Hz, sloping to a mild to severe loss through 6000Hz, and then returning to normal in the higher frequencies.
Also, people with hearing loss due to ear infection, middle ear fluid, eustachian tube dysfunction, Meniere's Disease, etc... generally have hearing loss only in the lower frequencies (0 to 1500Hz) and normal in the higher frequencies. Man, I left the office 2 hours ago, I gotta stop bringing work home with me . Seriously though, if you have any other questions, ask!.
Jim

 

[Tim Hoover]

I didn't read anything, Jim. I'm gonna have to plead ignorance on this one - what I wrote is what the clinic told me...

 

[Martin Fontaine]

My ear is doing much better than before the operation. Before the operation, I was like -40dB @ 500hz compared to the left (Nonoperated) ear. The line from 1k to 500 was going down pretty fast too! Now, I lose like 4-5dB when going from 1k to 500, and 10-12dB from 500 to 250... So of course, my subwoofer should be placed on my left but I'm very happy to know that the operation was a success.

Since the bass that I lose on the right side is mostly frequencies that are combined on a sub, except for headphone listening, I guess I have no problem.