What Does My Hearing Test Mean?

As a hearing loss develops, you’ll start to miss parts of conversation. Hearing loss can be insidious, meaning the sufferer is the last to notice how much he's missing. The brain adapts to hearing loss and attempts to fill in the blank spots, but a lot of times you’re left to guess what is being said.

Testing

• During a hearing test you hear tones or beeps at different volume levels. As you respond to these tones, a clinician marks the results on an audiogram. Your hearing test shows you how well you can hear the tones needed to understand human speech.

Interpretation

• The numbers across the top of your hearing test represent tones, low- and high-pitch tones. The low tones are 125 to 1000; the high tones are 1500 to 8000.

  The numbers on the left side of your hearing test represent decibels, volume level. The volume levels on a hearing test range from -20 to 120.

Significance

• Your hearing test shows you the softest volume level at which you heard each tone. Your hearing in each ear is plotted across the chart, your right ear in red and your left in blue.

Identification

• If all of your hearing is between -20 and 25 decibels, you have normal hearing. Hearing between 25 and 40 decibels represents a moderate hearing loss. Between 45 and 80 decibels represents severe hearing loss. Hearing between 85 and 120 decibels qualifies as deafness.

Effects

• If your test shows some hearing loss, look at what tones are being affected. High-pitch tones are needed for understanding speech. Low-pitch tones are needed to hear other noise.

Expert Insight

• Hearing aids can help with moderate high-pitch hearing loss, but they don’t help much with moderate low-pitch hearing loss. Hearing aids work well for people with severe hearing losses. Hearing aids aren’t effective for hearing loss below 85 decibels. Some deaf people choose to wear hearing aids for sound awareness, but hearing aids won’t help them understand speech better.