What to Expect During a Premium Hearing Test: It’s Not Just a Beep Test!
We’ve all had a basic hearing screening—a quick moment in a quiet room, maybe a few beeps, and a simple thumbs up or down. But when it comes to your lifelong hearing health, you deserve more than a quick check.
At Dennison Hearing Solutions, we offer a Premium Hearing Test that goes far beyond the basics. It’s a comprehensive, personalized assessment designed not just to measure what you can hear, but to understand how you hear in your real, busy, everyday life.
Here is a breakdown of what makes our evaluation a premium experience and why it’s the essential first step toward better hearing.
1. The Conversation: Where Better Hearing Begins
We start by putting the technology aside and simply talking. Your hearing challenges are unique, so your care should be, too.
Your Lifestyle: What are your hobbies? Do you struggle in noisy restaurants, at church, or on the phone? We want to know where you need the most improvement.
Your History: We discuss your medical background, medications, noise exposure (from work or recreation), and any family history of hearing loss or tinnitus (the ringing in the ears). This helps us uncover the root cause of any issues.
Bring a Partner: We encourage you to bring a close communication partner—a spouse, friend, or family member. Their insights into your listening struggles can be invaluable in painting a complete picture of your communication needs.
2. The Physical Check-Up: Seeing the Big Picture
Before any tones are played, we perform a thorough physical exam of your ears.
Otoscopy: Using a special light (otoscope), your audiologist examines your ear canal and eardrum. Sometimes, the problem is as simple as a buildup of earwax (cerumen) that can be safely removed right here in our office. This also helps to eliminate issues that may necessitate medical clearance.
3. The Diagnostics: A Deep Dive into Your Auditory System
This is the phase that takes us beyond the simple "beep test." We use a series of clinical gold-standard measures to assess every part of your ear—outer, middle, and inner.
Pure-Tone Audiometry: This part is the “beep test”. We play a series of tones at different volumes and pitches to determine the softest level that you can hear. The results are plotted on an audiogram to determine the degree and type of hearing loss you have (if any).
Speech Reception Threshold: With this test, you repeat a series of words at increasingly soft volumes. This test is primarily used to verify or add support to the Pure-Tone Audiometry.
Comfort/Discomfort Levels: For this, we play a passage and increase the volume to the level where you’re most comfortable (the level you’d set the TV to perhaps). Once we have that volume recorded, we continue increasing the volume until it becomes uncomfortably loud. This may sound unpleasant, but it is brief and helps us uncover any additional sensitivities you may have. This information can also help when we are programming hearing aids if we progress to that step.
Speech Discrimination: This is similar to the previous speech test, except that the voice you’re listening to and repeating is left at one comfortable volume. This test is important in helping us determine how much damage exists in the hearing system, and set expectations for success.
Speech-in-Noise: We believe this is an absolutely vital step in assessing hearing loss, and one that is far too often skipped in many “standard” tests. With this test you listen to a woman reading sentences and you repeat the sentence back, the background noise gets progressively loud, which helps us determine which types of environments may be especially challenging for you.
4. Discussing Your Personalized Results
At the end of your Premium Hearing Test, your hearing care specialist will sit down with you and to clearly review your results and explain them in an easy-to-understand way, as well as strategies that may help improve your communication.
We will provide a transparent, personalized roadmap to better hearing, which may include:
No Loss: Congratulations! We’ll simply recommend a follow-up test in the future.
Mild Loss: One of our Over-the-Counter (OTC) options may give you just the boost you need.
Moderate Loss and Beyond: We’ll discuss the latest technology and how it can help you rejoin the conversation.
Ready to Hear What You’ve Been Missing?
Your hearing is a vital part of your overall health and connections with loved ones. Don't let a lingering question or communication struggle keep you on the sidelines.
The first step is the most important one.
Call Dennison Hearing Solutions today at 770-209-2627 or request an appointment online to schedule your Premium Hearing Test. Discover the difference true comprehensive care makes.