Hearing impairment and hearing loss affect more than 200,000 Americans every year. Without proper treatment, this condition can worsen. This may result in total hearing loss. Hearing impairment can lead to social isolation as well as a lapse in speech and language skills. If caught early, though, hearing loss is something that doctors can create a personalized treatment plan for. These may include hearing aids and sometimes surgical corrections. For this reason, the early detection of hearing loss by audiometer is very important.

How it works.

An audiometer works by evaluating a subject’s hearing acuity. The patient wears a pair of headphones. The headphones then play a series of sounds like pure tones or spoken phrases. The patient responds by either confirming the reception of the sound or by trying to comprehend the phrase that was spoken. Through this, a comprehensive analysis can be created that shows the threshold of the patient's hearing acuity.

How it helps.

Generally, if a patient passes the audiometer with flying colors, it’s a good indication that hearing impairment is not an issue at hand. By eliminating total hearing loss from the deck of possibilities, a primary care doctor can then move forward with evaluating what other conditions could be causing the patient difficulty. If the audiometer, on the other hand, reveals results that suggest hearing impairment, the patient can then undergo further testing or see a specialist. Because of this, the early detection by audiometer plays a large part in the overall well being of a patient.

Booth Medical Equipment offers a variety of audiometers for the early detection of hearing loss. Explore our selection here.