Comprehensive Hearing Test Pittsburgh

Since 1949, our compassionate team of physicians, licensed audiologists and hearing instrument specialists have provided superior hearing health care to Southwestern Pennsylvania. We offer thorough hearing assessments using cutting-edge technology to determine the exact type and degree of hearing loss in each patient.

The gold-standard hearing loss tests we perform at Hearing Unlimited include:

• Otoscopy: This is used to identify if there’s acute otitis media (AOM), a painful type of ear infection. This is where we look into each ear to visualize the ear canal and eardrum. We also rule out any wax impaction or debris that may be present in the ear canal.
• Tympanometry and Impedance Testing: The presence of fluid results in a moderate hearing loss. The impairment can result in otitis media (bacterial infection). We gently place a pressure probe in your ear to test for fluid or congestion, issues with the bones in the middle ear, and other blockage problems.
• Audiometric Screening: Audiometric hearing screening is used for early detection of hearing loss. You’ll sit in a sound-treated booth and wear headphones connected to an audiometer. The headphones deliver different tones to each ear separately. We record each tone heard by your response to the different levels of the tones.
• Comprehensive Audiometry Testing: This test determines your degree of hearing loss using pure tones and word recognition testing. This is prepared in a sound-treated booth with headphones, insert earphones or speakers. You will listen to several tones and indicate when you hear them. We will graph your responses determining how loud a sound has to be for you to hear it.
• Bone Conduction Testing: This test is significant to determine if your hearing loss is due to an issue affecting the outer ear or the middle ear. A bone oscillator (a small square box on the end of a metal headband) is placed behind the ear; in which it delivers a series of tones to your ears. You will indicate when you hear a tone, and the results are recorded.
• Speech Reception Threshold Testing: These tests help determine your threshold for hearing two-syllable words, like “hot dog” or “baseball”. Your threshold is the faintest noise level at which you can correctly repeat the words 50 percent of the time or more.
• Speech Discrimination: This test assesses how well you can understand individual words at different sound levels. During the test, words are presented to you in a sentence and you repeat them, allowing us to assess your hearing.
• Speech-In-Noise Testing: This kind of audiology exam helps determine how well you can hear and understand speech in a noisy environment. We will ask you to repeat words both with and without background noise, and evaluate your performance with and without background noise to determine what kind of hearing loss you may be living with.
• Real Ear Measurement: This is the measurement of the sound pressure level in your ear canal when a hearing aid is worn out. After you’re fitted with a hearing aid, we make sure it fits correctly and you’re hearing the way you should with this test.
• Audiometric Acoustic Reflex Testing: These tests help determine where your hearing loss may originate. We use this equipment to test the reactions of a muscle in your inner ear that contracts when you hear a loud noise. The acoustic level that triggers the reflex helps us determine the type of your hearing loss.
• Audiometric Acoustic Reflex Decay Testing: Similar to acoustic reflex testing, audiometric acoustic reflex decay tests measure the degree of hearing loss brought about by regular exposure to loud noise.

Compassionate Auditory Testing Clinic

When you consult with Hearing Unlimited about your hearing loss, the results of your screening will provide your audiologist with a wealth of information about your personal case, from ear physiology to cognitive function. Using this information, we can guide you in selecting the right hearing aid to compensate for your individual type of hearing loss. It’s also important that your hearing aid suits your lifestyle, and that you’re completely confident and comfortable with your device moving forward.

We’re proud to offer personal hearing consultations and hearing aid fittings for each and every one of our patients. We will help you choose the hearing technology that’s right for you. Schedule an appointment online or call 412-347-5550 today with one of our providers at a location near you.