Pure Tone Audiometry Essay

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Pure Tone Audiometry is the key hearing test used to identify hearing threshold levels of an individual, in order to determine the degree, type, and place of hearing loss. The threshold levels is the lowest amplitude (at a fixed pitch) that is responded to three times. It is a subjective and objective measurement of an individual’s threshold, as it relies on the patient’s response to pure tone provided. However, it is necessary for the materials do be functioning, as well. If a material (i.e. headphones) is not working, it becomes an objective problem and unrelated to the patient’s hearing abilities (Huizing 2009). The goals of pure tone audiometry include: to find out if hearing loss is present, to find out the type of hearing loss, to find out the degree and pattern of hearing loss, to help in hearing aid selection, to help in identifying functional hearing loss, and to help find the site of For the purpose of this class, each student had a turn to perform the pure tone audiometry and to be the patient. Next, a pure tone staring from 40 dB HL at 1 K Hz was given. The bracketing procedure (decrease by 10 dB if patient can hear the stimuli then increase by 5 dB when patient stops hearing the stimuli) was followed. The threshold is found when the lowest positive response to a stimuli is found 50% of the time (however, during class, threshold was found when lowest stimuli was found 3 times). Furthermore, everything is repeated for different frequencies, including, 2000 Hz, 4000 Hz, 8000 K Hz, 250 K Hz, and 500 K Hz. Next, the pure tone average (PTA) is found among the thresholds of 500 Hz, 1000 Hz, and 2000 Hz. The next step required is a repetition of all of the previous steps, while using the bone vibrator instead of the headphones. If required, masking of bone connection and air conduction will follow. Finally, a diagnosis of severity, pattern, and type of hearing loss will be

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