subject: Understanding Your Results From The Discrimination Hearing Test [print this page] A hearing test may be able to tell you how you will hear with an aid device. If you find that you are struggling to hear and specifically struggling to differentiate between different words, then you could have a discrimination problem with your ears. This can be caused by damaged cilia, which are the hairs in the cochlea. If these hairs are damaged, you might have trouble being able to hear some sounds. It is important to always see a doctor to make sure there is no underlying medical problem that you may not know about that could be causing this problem. Once you check into this, then you should go forward with a discrimination hearing test.
A discrimination hearing test is one that you will take while sitting in a booth and while wearing headphones. The whole purpose is to see how you hear words when you are not able to see the person speaking. The tester will read a group of words, and you will need to repeat them back to him or her. The percentage that you are able to correctly repeat back is also the percentage that you will still likely be able to hear with an aid device. Aids are for amplification, so they will not help with discriminating between words. They may help you to better hear consonants, but your level of discrimination will not change.
The discrimination hearing test is a good one to have done if you have some trouble with the ability to hear higher frequencies. Others may benefit from this testing as well. No matter how you know that you are having a problem being able to hear, it is important that you do get the help you need.
One reason that going to a doctor before being tested is important is because the problem with your ears may be as simple as allergies or the beginnings of an ear infection. Both may be helped with the use of medicine. You may have heard that losing the ability to hear can be a sign of a brain tumor. That is a possibility, but most likely it is not that. It is still good, however, to check everything out to rule out the worst-case scenarios.
After having a discrimination hearing test along with any other testing that you choose to have, you will hopefully be on your way to getting aid devices. It might be that your discrimination level will be low, but at least you will know what to expect.
