Hearing Tests

At Avenue Hearing in Toronto, our trained professionals conduct both basic screening hearing tests and full-diagnostic assessments, depending on your needs. The results of these evaluations tell us whether you have a hearing loss and if so, the type and degree.

Full-Diagnostic Hearing Assessment

A full-diagnostic assessment at Avenue Hearing includes the following:

• Acoustic Immittance Measures – measures that provide information about the status of the middle and outer ear. These include measures of tympanometry and the stapedial reflex.
  • Tympanometry – this test measures the mobility of the eardrum and thus its capacity to transmit sound. It can determine if there is fluid in the middle ear, an eardrum perforation or a blockage of the ear canal.
  • Acoustic Reflex Test – this test measures the function of the stapedial reflex. The stapedius is a tiny muscle located in the middle ear that contracts to protect your ears when exposed to loud sounds (this is known as the stapedial reflex). Absence of the stapedial reflex may indicate, among other things, lesions of the middle ear or acoustic tumours.
  • Acoustic Reflex Decay Test – this test measures how long the stapedial reflex can be sustained.
  • Static Acoustic Test – this test determines the physical volume of the ear canal. It can help to diagnose a perforated eardrum or presence/absence of a ventilation tube.
• Pure Tone Audiometry – this test determines the minimum threshold at which one can detect a range of frequencies (250 Hz to 8000 Hz; the normal range of sound people are exposed to). This is performed through air and bone conduction methods in order to accurately pinpoint the source of any hearing loss.
• Speech Audiometry – this test assesses one’s ability to detect and discriminate spoken language. Components of this test include the speech recognition threshold (lowest volume at which speech is recognized) and speech discrimination test (ability to discriminate different words).