Pure Tone Audiometry (PTA) is an important examination of ears. This test is carried out to identify the hearing capacity of an individual that has been suffering from loss of hearing. After the test is completed the size and length of hearing loss can be judged.
Tympanometry is a very useful assessment of ears and their hearing capacities. Under this, the condition of the middle area of ear and the mobility of the eardrum is tested. This process is done through the route of ear canal. This particular test helps in making distinction between sensorineural and conductive hearing loss.
Speech threshold audometery is procedure used in the assessment of individual’s threshold of hearing for speech.
Short Increment Sensitivity Index (SISI) tone decay test, tinnitogram.
Before you bring your newborn home from the hospital, your baby needs to have a hearing screening.
Although most babies can hear normally, 1 to 3 of every 1,000 babies are born with some degree of hearing loss. Without newborn hearing screening, it is difficult to detect hearing loss in the first months and years of your baby’s life.
Newborn hearing screening can detect possible hearing loss in the first days of a baby’s life.
If a possible hearing loss is found, further tests will be done to confirm the results.
When hearing loss is confirmed, treatment and early intervention should start as soon as possible.
Babies learn from the time they are born. One of the ways they learn is through hearing. If they have problems with hearing and do not receive the right treatment and early intervention services, babies will have trouble with speech and language development.
For some babies, early intervention services may include the use of sign language and/or hearing aids
Some parents think they would be able to tell if their baby could not hear. This is not always the case. Babies may respond to noise by startling or turning their heads toward the sound. This does not mean they have normal hearing. Most babies with hearing loss can hear some sounds but still not hear enough to develop full speaking ability.
Timing is everything. Your baby will have the best chance for normal language development if any hearing loss is discovered and treatment begins by the age of 6 months—and the earlier, the better.
Both tests are quick (about 5 to 10 minutes), painless, and may be done while your baby is sleeping or lying still.
If the hearing loss is permanent, hearing aids and Auditory training/Auditory verbal therapy may be recommended for your baby.
Occasionally, surgical procedures(cochlear implant) may be helpful based on the type of hearing loss and medical condition of the baby.
It is a test measuring responses in the brain waves that are stimulated by a clicking sound to check the central auditory pathways(hearing) of the brainstem.
It is a method for recording the electrical potentials of the cochlea. ECochG generally involves measurement of the stimulus-related cochlear potentials (as opposed to the resting potentials), and often includes measurement of the whole nerve or compound action potential (AP) of the auditory nerve.
The test is performed by an otologist or audiologist with specialized training, and is used for detection of elevated inner ear pressure (endolymphatic hydrops) or for the testing and monitoring of inner ear and auditory nerve.
