If you suspect you may have hearing loss, it is important to seek proper testing and evaluation by a qualified Audiologist.
At Sounds of Life Audiology, our Masters qualified Audiologists will provide you with the highest levels of clinical care utilising the very latest hearing healthcare research and technology across all stages of your hearing aid journey.
Hearing Test
The hearing assessment will take approximately 60 minutes and will determine the type and severity of your hearing loss as well as your expected real-life hearing performance with hearing aids.
Fitting & Verification
The hearing aid fitting appointment will take approximately 60 minutes. Your hearing aids will be programmed to achieve optimal speech clarity and to ensure both physical and acoustic comfort.
Follow Up
After an acclimatisation period we will have a follow-up appointment to optimise your hearing aids and improve their performance in more complex listening settings.
Tympanometry
Tympanometry to measure sound movement and sound reflection through your tympanic membrane and middle ear system to check for problems (for example, conditions such as middle ear effusion, eustachian tube dysfunction).
Pure-tone audiometry
Pure-tone audiometry to measure your hearing thresholds (lowest perceived hearing levels) from 250Hz to 8000 Hz using head phones and a bone-conductor.
Speech audiometry
Speech audiometry to measure your ability to recognise familiar words at different volume levels so as to assess the benefits of hearing aids. Special testing will also be done to assess your sensitivity to background noise.
If you have a permanent hearing loss and wish to proceed with hearing aids, the audiologist will work with you to select the most appropriate hearing aids base on your level of hearing loss, your personal style preference, lifestyle requirements and of course, budget.
Our online hearing test is designed to be one of most accurate hearing tests on the Internet and will provide you with your estimated hearing thresholds (audiogram) at the critical frequencies for speech understanding.
Although this online hearing test has not been designed as a substitute for a proper hearing test1 , it will give you valuable information regarding your hearing and may confirm your suspicions about a possible hearing loss. It also offers a convenient way to check your hearing over time, allowing you to detect a possible degradation in your hearing.
With headphones on, play and listen to the calibration audio file. Then, without your headphones on, try producing the same sound level by rubbing your hands together closely in front of your nose, quickly and firmly. Adjust your computer’s volume so that both levels match. Once matched, do not change your levels anymore during the rest of the hearing test.
Calibration File
In a silent environment, play back the individual hearing test files, column by column, starting from the top left corner file (look for the ↓ arrow). Always start with the top files.
Move down the column until a tone becomes (barely) audible (softest you can hear), then switch to the next column. Once you have navigated through all the 6 columns, your audiogram is complete with six markers.
Important to note
- The bottom files are for severe hearing loss, and will play very loudly for a normal hearing person! To avoid discomfort please follow the calibration procedure and always starting by playing the quieter files (top files) first.
- Please note test files will be presented bilaterally (in both ears). Therefore, the results of the test will be based on the ear with better hearing. If you would like to test your ears separately, please use the balance function in your audio settings (on your computer) and set the audio level to 0 on the ear you are not testing.
Your personal hearing thresholds should now appear on the audiogram on the right. This graph is similar to what your Hearing Care Professional’s pure-tone audiogram (hearing test), and plots the softest sounds you can hear (hearing thresholds) across the different frequencies tested.
Ideally, the six markers should be located on the top of the graph around the zero range (on the y-axis). If any of the markers are further down the graph (>20 dB on the y-axis), this indicates possible hearing loss.
Click on the ‘Overlay’ button to add information on top of your audiogram.
- Overlay 1 – average conversational speech
- Overlay 2 – familiar environmental sounds
Remember, all the sounds located above your individual hearing thresholds will be inaudible to you.
Press the print button to open a printable page.
Remember to bookmark this page and run this hearing test periodically to monitor your hearing!
1 Please note the online hearing test is not a substitute for a proper hearing test conducted by a qualified hearing care professional. You are encouraged to consult a hearing care professional as soon as you seriously feel concerned about a possible hearing loss.