Hearing Tests
If you're interested in having your first hearing test, chances are
there's a hearing aid dispenser or audiologist near you that will give you
one at no cost. Of course, their interest in doing so is to sell you a
hearing aid, so be aware of that going in.
There are also some online hearing screenings that can give you a rough
idea of the extent of your hearing loss.
September 2007 - BHI Site Introduces Hearing Loss
Simulator
September 2007 - Indiana Jones &The Lost of Art of
Tuning Fork Testing
February 2008 - BHI Asks for Help, Offers Prizes, in
Validating Its Quick Hearing Check
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September 2007
The Better Hearing Institute (BHI) has created a new tool to help
America appreciate the impact of hearing loss. Featured on BHI's website,
the tool, a
hearing loss simulation site presents 21 sound simulations of normal
and reduced hearing that are paired with pictures that simulate normal and
reduced vision. The paired simulations will help people with normal
hearing understand the listening challenges of someone with a hearing
loss.
In a recent article on hearing loss simulation (Hearing Journal, July
2007) Zurek and Desloge present a compelling case for the use of
simulation in the hearing healthcare field for counseling, hearing aid
fitting, training, and in hearing conservation. A number of years ago
Robinson and colleagues using an in-office sound-field, demonstrated that
the use of hearing loss simulation results in:
* a significant reduction in hearing aid returns for credit and
* improvements in the ability to close a sale
In other words an individual is more likely to keep their new hearing
aids when family members have empathic understanding of the seriousness of
their hearing loss. Hearing loss simulation permits the family members to
hear through their loved-one's ears. What a great way to facilitate
communication, encouragement and acceptance of hearing solutions.
The BHI audio simulations are based on the work of Brian Moore and
colleagues demonstrating how these listening situations sound to people
with normal hearing, and mild and moderate sensorineural hearing loss; our
thanks to Phonak for sharing these sound files.
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September 2007
As in an Indiana Jones adventure, we search for
the lost art of tuning fork testing like that used before the advent of
modern electronic audiometers, impedance audiometry, real-ear measurement
systems, and electroacoustic analyzers. Unearthed, our adventurer finds
deep in the dusty bins of history a soft leather case containing six
heavy-duty alloy tuning forks that resonate at the octaves of 128 Hz, 256
Hz, 512 Hz, 1024 Hz, 2048 Hz, and 4096 Hz (Figure 1). First proposed in
1550 A.D. by Italian physician Capivacci to determine the location of
hearing disorders, it was not until Englishman John Shore developed a
single tuning fork for tuning musical instruments at A423.5 cps that the
modern tuning fork took shape. Thereafter, German physicist Chladni in
1800 developed a set of forks for testing human hearing.
Full Story
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February 2008
In our January 4th BHI newsletter, we announced
our intent to further validate the BHI Quick Hearing Check (http://betterhearing.org/hearing_loss/quickHearingCheck.cfm)
with the help of Ruth Bentler, PhD. We have received commitments to enter
about 1,000 audiograms and speech test scores from hearing care
professionals along with our Quick Hearing Check score. Please be advised
that our request for this information is HIPAA compliant in that we do not
ask for patient identifying information. We would like a sample size of
about 5,000 subjects for this study and encourage hearing care
professionals to participate at the following site:
www.betterhearing.org/audiogram.
Full Story
