Your Hearing: How it works and how can we measure it?
How does my hearing work and how is it measured?
How Our Ears Work
The key to good hearing is having healthy inner-ear nerves, or hair cells. As we grow older some of these will naturally die off, but often many are killed early as a result of not properly protecting our ears from loud, harmful sounds and noise.
How our Hearing is Measured
Professional hearing experts or doctors, also known as Audiologists or Otolaryngologists, are able to measure our hearing by using an audiometer that sends tones and sounds to our ears via earphones or other listening devices. The testing processes may differ, but essentially you listen and respond each time you hear a tone or pitch and the levels are adjusted until you can hardly hear them. Once the tones become to soft to hear, it is determined you have reached your hearing threshold levels.
These thresholds, measured in decibels, are compiled on an audiogram chart, for tones at different pitches and/or frequencies, which are measured in "Hertz," (a term for sound wave cycles per second). Normal threshold levels generally fall within an unshaded area on the audiogram chart. As hearing loss occurs during the test, the threshold level will drop into shaded areas on the audiogram chart, and allows the doctor, or hearing expert administering the test, to plot your hearing level.
Audiologists, Otolaryngologists and other hearing professionals recommend hearing evaluations every ten years and even more often for individuals over the age of 50. If you are regularly exposed to environments containing high noise levels, such as recreational skeet shooting or work in a car manufacturing facility, it is strongly suggested that you schedule tests more frequently to ensure your hearing is remaining stable and is being properly protected. If you are noticing unusual changes in your hearing, buzzing, ringing, deafness, etc…it is extremely important to schedule an exam to prevent additional hearing loss or damage to your ears. Not doing so can result in long-term ear damage and in extreme situations can result in total loss of hearing and deafness.
Learn more about Noise Reduction Ratings.
