So you’ve had your hearing test, you’ve pushed the button every time you’ve heard a beep and your audiologists has shown you a graph of your hearing….what does this show?
This graph of your hearing is called an audiogram and it is used to diagnose hearing loss, the type of hearing loss and can be an indication of the effect that your hearing loss has on your daily life.
Audiogram:
- The Y-axis (vertical) measures the intensity, or loudness of the sound in decibels (dB) and ranges from 120dB to -10dB. For example, an airplane taking off is a high-decibel sound whilst a bird tweeting is a low-decibel sound.
- The X-axis (horizontal) measures the frequency, or pitch of the sound from 125Hz to 8000Hz. For example, a dog barking is a low-frequency sound whilst a ticking clock is a high-frequency sound.
- The audiogram also shows the severity of hearing loss from mild to profound hearing loss for each frequency.
- It also shows the type of hearing loss you may be experiencing.
- Conductive hearing loss- hearing loss originating from the outer or middle ear. Sometimes these hearing losses can be improved with medical intervention.
- Sensorineural hearing loss- hearing loss originating from the inner ear/cochlear. This is the most common type of hearing loss with age or noise exposure and more often that not, is permanent.
- Mixed hearing loss- This is when there is a conductive and sensorineural hearing loss simultaneously.
How to interpret an audiogram
- The red circles mark the hearing thresholds of the right ear and the blue crosses mark the hearing thresholds of the left ear.
- A person has normal hearing when all the thresholds of the left and right ear (all the blue crosses and red circles) are between 0 and 20dB.
- The further down the graph your hearing thresholds are, the poorer your hearing is.
Hearing aids can be a great solution to improve your hearing in the frequencies where it is missing.