Audiometry Test in North Texas
Audiometry (or pure-tone audiometry) is the most common type of hearing test. It is a simple test that provides a detailed picture of your hearing ability across different pitches and volumes.
If conversations feel muffled, you’re turning the TV up more than you used to, or you’ve started avoiding noisy situations, a comprehensive hearing evaluation is the clearest way to understand what’s happening with your hearing and what to do about it.
At Calvert Hearing Care, our Doctors of Audiology use pure-tone audiometry as the foundation of every diagnostic hearing evaluation. This painless, non-invasive test gives us a precise, detailed picture of your hearing across the full range of pitches and volumes so we can give you accurate answers, not guesses.
Signs It May Be Time for a Hearing Test
Most people wait an average of seven years after first noticing hearing changes before seeking help. Hearing loss is usually gradual which means it’s easy to adapt without realizing how much you’ve been missing. If any of the following are familiar, an audiometry test is a good next step.
What Is Audiometry?
Audiometry specifically pure-tone audiometry is the most widely used diagnostic hearing test in audiology. It measures your hearing threshold: the softest level at which you can detect sounds across a range of pitches and volumes.
The test evaluates your hearing from 250 Hz to 8,000 Hz the frequency range most important for understanding speech. Low frequencies correspond to deep sounds like a man’s voice or a bass note. High frequencies correspond to lighter sounds like birdsong, a child’s voice, or consonants like ‘s’, ‘f’, and ‘th’. These high-frequency sounds are often the first to be affected by age-related or noise-induced hearing loss, which is why missing them makes speech sound muffled even when volume is not the issue.
Results are plotted on an audiogram a visual map of your hearing that your audiologist will walk you through in plain language at the end of your appointment.
Air Conduction and Bone Conduction Testing
A complete audiometric evaluation includes two components: air conduction testing and bone conduction testing. Together, they tell your audiologist not just how much hearing loss is present, but where in the ear it originates a distinction that determines the treatment options available to you.
Air Conduction Testing
This is the core of the audiometry test. You sit in a soundproofed booth and wear headphones or insert earphones. A series of pure tones are played at different pitches and volumes. Each time you hear a tone even faintly you press a button or raise your hand. The audiologist gradually reduces the volume to find the softest level you can detect at each frequency.
Each ear is tested independently, which allows your audiologist to identify differences between the left and right side an important clinical finding.
Bone Conduction Testing
If air conduction testing reveals a hearing loss, bone conduction testing is performed to identify its type. A small vibrating device is placed on the bone behind your ear (the mastoid). Instead of traveling through the outer and middle ear, the tone is sent directly to the inner ear via bone vibration.
By comparing your air conduction and bone conduction results, your audiologist can determine whether your hearing loss is:
- Conductive — a problem in the outer or middle ear (often treatable medically)
- Sensorineural — damage to the inner ear or auditory nerve (typically permanent, managed with hearing aids)
- Mixed — a combination of both
This distinction matters enormously: conductive hearing loss may be reversible through medical or surgical treatment, while sensorineural hearing loss is managed differently. Knowing which type you have is the foundation of any effective treatment plan.
What to Expect
- The test takes place in a quiet place to ensure greater accuracy.
- You’ll wear headphones and listen to a series of tones at different frequencies between 250 and 8000 Hz.
- Sounds are played at gradually softer levels until you can no longer hear them.
Understanding Your Audiogram
Your audiometry results are recorded on an audiogram a graph that maps your hearing at each tested frequency. Your audiologist will explain every element of it at your appointment, but here is what it shows.
- The horizontal axis (left to right) shows frequency in Hertz (Hz) from low-pitched sounds on the left to high-pitched sounds on the right
- The vertical axis (top to bottom) shows volume in decibels (dB) quieter sounds at the top, louder sounds at the bottom
- Each ear is plotted separately, so asymmetry between ears is immediately visible
- The pattern of your results reveals not just the degree of hearing loss, but its configuration for example, a high-frequency slope typical of noise damage, or a flat loss affecting all pitches equally
Care and Treatment
Based on your results, we may recommend hearing aids, monitoring or further testing. If you already use a hearing aid, we may adjust the fitting or settings if needed while you are here.
Accurate audiometry helps identify the type and severity of your hearing loss to ensure you receive the right treatment – and repeating the audiometry test at regular intervals over time allows tracking of changes, so your hearing care stays current.
Ready to test your hearing?
Call 972-325-6958 or contact us online to schedule an appointment at Calvert Hearing Care today.