You don’t need to travel far and wide to get access to the tests needed to assess your hearing. Midwest Hearing Consultants offers top-of-the-line testing technology in house, for your convenience. Below, you’ll find a list of these tests that we offer, along with a description of the objective of the assessment.

Diagnostic Audiometry: Audiometric testing evaluates hearing sensitivity between the frequencies of 250-8000 Hz, all of which are necessary for both hearing and understanding speech. Audiometric testing is individualized and may be conducted in various ways depending on the age of the patient.  Typically, air conduction audiometry is completed in addition to bone conduction audiometry in order to determine the type and severity of the hearing loss. Test results will allow the audiologist to diagnose conductive, mixed or sensorineural hearing loss.

Otoacoustic Emissions Testing: This type of test is an objective evaluation of the hearing organ, the cochlea, and the outer hair cells within it. Pure tones are sent through the middle ear to the inner ear, where the outer hair cells lie. When pure tones are presented, the outer hair cells emit a response called an otoacoustic emission, which is measured by our clinical equipment. These measured responses provide information regarding function of the hearing organ.

Immittance testing: This test consists of various testing including Tympanometry, Acoustic Reflexes and Decay. Tympanometry is responsible for evaluating the function of the middle ear; this includes the eardrum and middle ear bones. This test can be helpful in confirming middle ear pathology. Acoustic reflexes and decay evaluate specific muscle movement in response to extreme sounds. These reflexes may confirm a hearing loss or may be indicative of a retrocochlear pathology.

Videonystagmography (VNG): A VNG is generally performed because the physician, after taking a complete history and having performed a physical exam, needs more information in order to diagnose a patient’s complaint of dizziness/vertigo.  It consists of a battery of six tests in which the patient’s eye movements are recorded.  The results provided by a VNG and other clinical tests can help the physician make the diagnosis of what is contributing to the dizziness and how to treat it.

Auditory Brainstem Response Testing (ABR): An ABR is another type of evaluation tool used to obtain information regarding a patient’s hearing. Like OAE testing, this test is objective, as it relies on the brain’s responses to different types of stimuli presented at various sound levels. Monitoring these responses allow Audiologists to determine hearing thresholds. This type of testing is ordered when traditional audiometry cannot be completed.

Eustachian Tube Dysfunction (ETD): ETD testing is performed by increasing and decreasing the pressure of a normal tympanogram to +/-400 daPa, and having the patient perform a Toynbee (hold nose and swallow) procedure followed by a Valsalva (hold nose and blow). If the Eustachian tube opens as a direct result of the pressure, the Eustachian tube is most likely working properly. If pressure does not equalize, there is Eustachian tube dysfunction.