Diagnosing Hearing Loss When you are getting older, hearing loss comes with the territory. It becomes harder to hear everything – especially those darn grandkids. It can start to get scary, especially when you cannot communicate with your loved ones face-to-face, but you cannot hear their voices over the phone anymore. It can be scary, but it is important that if you are truly experience hearing loss, you need to be diagnosed. How do you know for sure that it is real and not just a temporary ear infection? If you go to your doctor, there are certain tests they can do to make sure what you are experiencing is really hearing loss.
Hearing Tests The first step they may take is your basic, general hearing test. This involves covering one of your ears and speaking to you, seeing how well what was said was understood. They will repeat this test with you covering your other ear, and they will change the volume of what is said to see at what minimum amount of volume you can hear. Next is a tuning fork test, which is slightly more technological, but still quite simple. They are specialized two-pronged, metal instruments that when struck, create a sound that can even determine how your hearing was damaged. If your hearings loss has been caused by damage to the vibrating parts of your middle ear (including your eardrum), and/or damage to sensors or nerves of your inner ear, the tuning fork will be able to determine it. There is another test that you can take for your hearing loss. It is called an audiometer test and it requires visiting an audiologist. They will give you headphones that will produce noises at a series of different levels, and you will acknowledge when exactly you can hear them so they can determine at what volume you can hear. They will also tell you to repeat words that you hear to see the quality of your hearing.
Diagnosing the Results After taking these series of tests, you may be diagnosed with hearing loss. There are different levels of severity, and you may be recommended to get a hearing aid. If that is the case, be aware of the different options that you have from size to price. What the hearing aid does not help you with is the quality of your phone conversations. You cannot read lips and you cannot use sign language, if you even know how to. That is why Caption Call provides the best captioned telephone for communicating with your loved ones when you can no longer hear their voices. How it works is, when someone calls, their words will be converted to text for you to read. This allows you to know what they are saying while they are saying it. This way you can respond naturally. You do
not have to test your vision with texting on a tiny keyboard, and your loved ones will still be able to hear your voice. Those darn grandkids will sure appreciate it.