Audiology And The Hearing Tests

By Roxanne Cruz


The branch of science that studies hearing, balance and its disorder is called audiology. Catering to the needs of every child and adult, Long Island audiology has been serving for quite sometime. Audiology specialists, or audiologists, are health care professionals who have a specialization in diagnosing and treating disorders of the ears and its parts and other related issues.

They can determine the if you are in the normal range of hearing, and if not, which parts are affected and how bad is it. They can assist you with your needs by administering auditory sense aids and map out cochlear implants. They are also trained in teaching the adults who have become deaf late in life the necessary compensation skills and counsel families of deaf children.

Audiologists provide various services like hearing tests, speech audiometry, and vestibular assessments. These tests are usually conducted in rooms that are soundproofed and has calibrated equipment. Some of these tests are otoscopy, which is an assessment of the state of the outer canal and the eardrum.

Tympanometry is an examination to test the middle ear, the mobility of the eardrum, and the conduction bones by creating variations of air pressure in the ear canal. Speech audiometry is a fundamental tool in assessing hearing loss and it determines if a person has discomfort or tolerance to speech stimuli and it gives information on word recognition abilities. Pure tone audiometry is the key test to determine the threshold level of an individual that determines the degree of sensory loss.

Otoacoustic emission test measures the acoustic response that is produced by the inner ear in response to the sound stimulus. Vestibular assessment is usually used on dizzy patients to determine the cause of dizziness since eighty five percent of dizziness is related to the ears. Evoked potential test measures the electrical sensitivity of the brain in response to the stimulation to a specific sensory nerve pathways, like the brain stem and the auditory sense.

To make a confident diagnosis on the disorder, doctors need to evaluate you through these tests accordingly. These doctors also cater alternatives for the management of auditory sense and balance difficulties, which includes therapy and aid amplification. They are equipped with knowledge to assess what kind of listening technology you need and make adjustments that are deemed necessary.

Audiologists often work with teams with other health care professionals like speech pathologists, physicians, physical therapists, and occupational therapists. Some work with the general patients while others specialize in child care. There are also some who work as researchers or scientists.

In general, you will need to earn a Doctor of Audiology or AuD to practice it which usually takes four years after earning a baccalaureate. This requires almost two thousand hours of supervised clinical rotations to make sure that each graduate is prepared and knowledgeable in evaluating ear and balance needs. Audiologists in all states are required to be licensed or registered.

This field is rapidly growing and has become high in demand across the globe since many states have required newborns to be tested for auditory sense loss and receive early intervention when needed. Elderly people and young children are usually the patients of these doctors, who are often involved directly in the clinical work. To experience a good quality life through hearing, visit Long Island Audiology.




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