Hearing testing typically involves two types of testing, pure tone and speech recognition testing. Pure tone testing involves a series of tests designed to evaluate your hearing abilities at different frequencies. The specialist will place you inside a comfortable sound booth, and instruct your to indicate when you hear a tone in one or both of your ears. They will play tones of varying frequencies and volumes. This information is analyzed to understand the degree of hearing loss at specific frequencies.

Speech recognition testing evaluates your ability to hear and process speech sounds into intelligible words. To communicate effectively, we must be able to both hear the sound and translate it into understandable language. For those with sustained untreated hearing loss, their speech recognition abilities can diminish over time. This part of testing gives your provider a well rounded understanding of where your hearing and understanding abilities are at this moment in time. The combined results allow your hearing professional to recommend the best treatment plan for your unique situation.