Audio Help Hearing Centers provides comprehensive hearing aid services in New York. Our clinics are conveniently located in Manhattan (Chelsea Village, Columbus Circle, and Park Avenue). We also have additional offices in Scarsdale, NY (Westchester County) and Stamford, CT.

Getting your hearing checked yearly is very important for your hearing health and overall well-being.

As you get older, your hearing in each ear might worsen, but your brain will try to make up for it. This can make you feel really tired, both in your body and your mind, by the end of the day. Finding out if you have hearing loss can also help protect you from problems like dementia, Alzheimer’s, and depression.

Making an appointment for a hearing test at Audio Help Hearing Centers is the first step to finding out if you need hearing aids or if your current ones need adjusting.

When you come for a hearing test with one of our audiologists, you will meet a friendly staff who are committed to helping you. Most insurance companies pay for a hearing test every year.

Why Would I Need a Hearing Test?

Getting a hearing test from a professional audiologist is important for several reasons:

Early Detection of Hearing Loss: Hearing loss can happen slowly, and many people don’t notice it until it gets really bad. Getting your hearing checked often can help find problems early. This way, you can get help right away and take care of your hearing.
Prevention of Further Damage: If we find hearing loss early, we can stop it from getting worse. This might mean changing some habits, using ear protection, or getting hearing aids. If we don’t find it early, the damage might be permanent.
Improved Quality of Life: Hearing loss can affect many parts of life, like talking to others, making friends, and feeling happy. Getting your hearing checked and treated quickly can make life much better. It helps you talk to people and join in fun activities.
Identification of Underlying Health Issues: Hearing loss can be a sign of other health problems like heart disease or diabetes. Getting your hearing checked regularly can help find these problems early so you can get the right treatment sooner.
Customized Solutions: Audiologists can give special advice and solutions based on how bad and what kind of hearing loss someone has. This might include using hearing aids, other helpful devices, or different treatments made just for that person.
Workplace and Safety Considerations: For people who work in jobs like construction or manufacturing, good hearing is very important for staying safe. Hearing tests might be needed to make sure they can do their jobs safely. These tests help keep everyone safe at work.
Cognitive Health Connection: Studies show that not treating hearing loss can be connected to problems with thinking and memory, like dementia. Getting regular hearing tests and taking action can help keep your brain healthy.
Social and Emotional Well-being: Hearing loss can make people feel alone, upset, and even sad. Taking care of hearing problems early can help relationships with family and friends.
Adjustment to Hearing Aids: If an audiologist says you need hearing aids, it’s good to start using them early. Testing early helps you slowly get used to hearing aids. It takes time to learn how to use them well, and starting early makes it easier to adjust.

What are the types of hearing tests?

There are different kinds of hearing tests. Each test helps check different parts of how we hear.

Below are some common types of hearing tests:

Pure-Tone Audiometry: This is the most common hearing test. During this test, you will listen to different tones through headphones. These tones will vary in pitch (how high or low they sound) and volume (how loud or soft they are). The audiologist will find out the quietest sounds you can hear at different pitches. They will make a chart called an audiogram that shows your hearing levels.
Speech Audiometry: This test checks how well you can hear and understand spoken words. You might be asked to repeat words that are said at different loudness levels. Speech discrimination tests see if you can recognize and understand spoken words.
Tympanometry: Tympanometry checks how your eardrum moves when the air pressure in your ear changes. This test helps find problems in the middle part of your ear, like if there is fluid or if the eustachian tube isn’t working right.
Otoacoustic Emissions (OAE) Test: OAE tests check the sounds made by the inner ear when it hears a noise. This helps find problems with the tiny hair cells in the cochlea, showing how well the outer hair cells are working.
Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) Test: BR tests check how the hearing nerve and brain respond to sounds. Doctors often use this test to check a newborn’s hearing or to see if the hearing nerve is working well.
Electrocochleography (ECochG): This test checks how the inner ear reacts to sounds by measuring tiny electrical signals. It can help find out if someone has certain hearing problems, like Meniere’s disease.
Videonystagmography (VNG): VNG tests check how well your balance system is working by watching how your eyes move when you see different things and change positions. Even though it’s mostly a test for balance, it also gives clues about how well your inner ear is working.
Auditory Processing Tests: These tests check how well the brain can understand and make sense of sounds. They are often used to find problems that make it hard to understand speech when there is a lot of background noise.
Functional Listening Evaluation: This means checking how well a person can listen and understand in real-life places, like in a classroom or at work.
Bone Conduction Testing: This test checks how well you hear by sending sounds through the bones in your skull. It skips the outer and middle parts of your ear. This helps to find out if hearing loss is because of problems with the bones and ear canal (conductive) or because of problems in the inner ear or nerves (sensorineural).

These tests can be used by themselves or together to get a full picture of how well someone hears. They help find out what kind and how much hearing loss a person has, and they guide the right treatments. The exact tests picked depend on the person’s age, symptoms, and the type of hearing problem they have.

Three main types of hearing loss

The three main types of hearing loss are sensorineural, conductive, and mixed.

Here’s a brief description of each:

Sensorineural Hearing Loss

Sensorineural hearing loss happens when the inner part of your ear (called the cochlea) or the nerve that helps you hear gets damaged. This kind of hearing loss usually doesn’t get better. It can be caused by getting older, being around loud noises, taking some medicines, or because of genes you inherit from your family.

People with sensorineural hearing loss might find it hard to hear quiet sounds. They may also hear speech that sounds fuzzy or unclear and have trouble understanding talking when there’s a lot of background noise. Hearing aids are often used to help with this kind of hearing loss.

Conductive Hearing Loss

This type of hearing loss happens when sound can’t travel well through the outer ear to the middle ear. This can happen because of things like earwax buildup, ear infections, a hole in the eardrum, or problems with the small bones in the ear.

People with conductive hearing loss have trouble hearing quiet sounds. Sometimes, they can hear better in noisy places. This type of hearing loss can often be fixed with medicine or surgery, depending on what is causing the problem.

Mixed Hearing Loss

Mixed hearing loss happens when someone has both sensorineural and conductive hearing loss. This means there are problems in the inner ear or the hearing nerve, and also in the middle or outer ear. It can happen if a person who already has sensorineural hearing loss gets conductive hearing loss too.

People with mixed hearing loss have problems from both sensorineural and conductive hearing loss. They might need surgery or medicine to help, and they often use hearing aids too.

Different people have different kinds of hearing loss, and each type needs its own treatment. To find out what’s best, it’s important to get checked by an audiologist. They can figure out exactly what’s wrong and suggest the right help.

Audio Help Hearing Centers audiologists provide comprehensive hearing tests in New York and other key locations.

Hearing Test: What To Expect

Hearing tests are painless, non-invasive procedures. We want to ensure you’re comfortable and at ease during your appointment so you can fully understand your condition and make an educated decision. A hearing test is conducted in a soundproof booth so the audiologist can assess your hearing to determine if there is a need for an assisted hearing device.

Medical History

During the first step of the process, one of our licensed audiologists will review your medical history to determine if any factors contribute to your potential hearing loss.

That may include any history of:

Ear infections
Ear surgery
Noise exposure
Tinnitus, or ringing in the ears
Dizziness or vertigo
Head and neck injuries

Your audiologist also needs a complete list of your medications, as some prescription and over-the-counter drugs exacerbate hearing loss.

Q & A

Next, our audiologists will discuss the nature of your concerns and learn about your specific situation. That is an essential step in the process because it provides our audiologists with the information they need to recommend a hearing plan. Your audiologist will ask you questions regarding your hearing loss and the listening situations that require improved communication.

Common hearing test questions include:

Do you have difficulty in certain listening environments, such as a restaurant, movie/theatre, group setting, talking on the phone, or watching TV?
Do loved ones often mention your TV is too loud?
Do you ask others to repeat themselves or speak up during conversations?
Do you get anxious in social settings?
Would you feel comfortable wearing hearing aids or other assistive listening devices?
What are your hearing health priorities? (i.e., cost, cosmetic preference)

Physical Exam and Hearing Test

Before the hearing test, our audiologists will conduct a physical examination of your ear using an otoscope to see if infection, excess earwax, or other blockages are present.

Afterward, you’ll take a pure tone hearing test in a soundproof booth. You’ll wear headphones in a quiet space and listen to a series of tones at various volumes to assess your hearing threshold.

You’ll also receive a speech-hearing test, which includes a series of spoken words at different volumes. You will repeat the words back to the audiologist to help them understand how well you detect and understand speech.

Hearing Test Results

Your hearing test results are displayed as a digital audiogram to identify the softest sounds and pitches you can hear. The marks on the graph indicate the severity of your hearing loss. Your hearing will be categorized as normal, slight, mild, moderate, moderately severe, severe, or profound.

Hearing Aid Demonstration

After determining if you have correctable hearing loss, your doctor will recommend a device that best suits your hearing loss. They will also discuss the available hearing aid styles to address your needs.

Our expert audiologists will demonstrate different hearing aids that address a variety of listening scenarios, such as noisy restaurants, watching TV, listening to music and having one-on-one conversations. We will equip you with the knowledge and confidence you need to feel in control of your hearing health to make the best decision about your condition.

Hearing Aid Brands

After identifying your ideal type of hearing aid, your audiologist will recommend a specific brand and model that will meet your hearing needs and fit your budget. Regardless of the brand or model of the hearing aid, you can rely on the knowledge and experience of each Audio Help audiologist. We provide total hearing solutions that fit the patient, not the manufacturer.

The key to improved hearing is the audiologists’ work and investigation. Hearing aids are the vehicle for translating the audiologist’s findings to your ears, so we do not focus on any specific hearing aid brand. Instead, we strive to meet our patients’ requirements with different brands and styles of hearing technology.

Hearing Test FAQs

Will I need to do anything to prepare for a hearing test?

To prepare for a hearing test, there are a few simple steps you can take. Firstly, make a list of any relevant medical history, medications, or exposure to loud noises. Bring any previous audiograms or hearing test results if available. Be ready to communicate any specific hearing concerns or challenges you’ve noticed. These preparations help ensure a more accurate assessment and enable the audiologist to tailor the testing to your individual needs.

Are there any risks to hearing tests?

Hearing tests conducted by professional audiologists are generally safe and non-invasive. Standard tests, such as pure-tone audiometry or speech audiometry, involve the presentation of sounds at varying frequencies and volumes. There are no inherent risks associated with these tests. However, it’s essential to inform the audiologist of any existing ear conditions or concerns. Specialized tests, like those involving equipment inserted into the ear canal, are also safe when performed by trained professionals, minimizing potential risks.

Can you do a hearing test on your phone?

While there are smartphone apps claiming to offer hearing tests, they may not provide accurate results or substitute for professional evaluation. Professional audiologists use specialized equipment to conduct thorough assessments. Smartphone apps lack the precision and controlled environment needed for reliable testing. If concerned about hearing, consult a licensed audiologist for a comprehensive examination. They can perform accurate tests, diagnose issues, and recommend appropriate interventions based on your individual needs.

Hearing Tests in NYC

A hearing evaluation is a crucial step in maintaining healthy hearing and discovering if you have any auditory problems. If you need to get a hearing test in New York, please contact Audio Help Hearing Centers.

Our audiologists are ready to address your needs and find the hearing solution that’s right for you.

Audio Help Hearing has three New York City audiology clinics conveniently located in Manhattan (Chelsea Village, Columbus Circle, and Park Avenue) and additional offices in Scarsdale, NY (Westchester County), and Stamford, CT.