Feeling anxious about a hearing test is more common than you might think. The phrase “test anxiety” often brings back memories of school exams, and those old associations can make any kind of test feel stressful—even one meant to support your health. If the idea of a hearing test has you feeling tense, you’re not alone. Let’s walk through what you can expect and explore simple ways to ease your mind so you can arrive feeling calm.
What Happens During a Hearing Test?
A pure tone hearing test is simple. You’ll sit in a quiet room, listen to a series of beeps and press a button when you hear each beep. The beeps will vary in frequency and volume, and your hearing specialist will use your responses to determine how loud each frequency needs to be for you to hear it. We consider any loss of 26 decibels (dB) or greater to be clinically significant.
In addition to your pure tone test, we may conduct one or both of the following:
- Speech-in-noise test. During a speech-in-noise test, you’ll listen to a series of words or sentences amid background noise. We’ll ask you to repeat back what you hear. We may use a speech-in-noise test to better understand your hearing loss or to evaluate auditory processing disorder—a condition where your ears hear, but your brain can’t understand speech.
- Tympanometry. During tympanometry, we’ll use a small probe with a microphone, speaker and air pump to check how well the eardrum moves in response to sound. Poor movement may indicate middle-ear hearing loss.
Once we complete the tests, we’ll give you your results and go through your treatment options. If we find hearing loss, we may recommend hearing aids. If we find an auditory processing disorder, listening exercises can help improve your understanding.
Destressing Before the Test
Here are a few ways you can destress before your hearing test for a smooth and pleasant experience:
- Get at least seven hours of sleep. The average adult needs seven or more hours of sleep each night. To help yourself feel rested, try taking a few evening tasks off your plate and save any late outings, like a trip to Clancy’s Irish Pub or a movie night with friends, for a Friday night when you don’t have a hearing test the next day.
- Try deep breathing exercises. Before you head to Advantage ENT & Audiology for your test, try some deep breathing exercises at home. You can watch an instructional video with breathing cues or just take five to 10 steadying breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth.
- Do something you enjoy. Reading a book, watching a funny movie or listening to your favorite music will put you in a calm, happy mood for your test.
We’re here to help you through every step of the hearing testing and treatment process. If you have any questions about what to expect, reach out to our experts at Advantage ENT & Audiology today.