Hearing Assessments in London

Pure tone audiometry is conducted to determine the softest sounds a person can hear across a range of frequencies. During the test, tones are presented through headphones and, when needed, a small bone vibrator, allowing hearing thresholds to be measured via both air and bone conduction pathways. Comparing these results helps determine not only the degree of hearing loss, but also its type and location, such as sensorineural, conductive, or mixed hearing loss.

Tympanometry is a quick, objective test used to assess how well the middle ear is functioning. It evaluates how effectively sound travels through the middle ear system by measuring eardrum movement in response to changes in air pressure. Tympanometry helps identify middle ear conditions such as fluid behind the eardrum, eustachian tube dysfunction, and other disorders that can affect sound transmission to the inner ear. As different conditions can produce similar results, tympanometry is always interpreted alongside other hearing tests to support accurate diagnosis and management.

While reduced hearing sensitivity on a pure-tone hearing test often leads to difficulty understanding speech, people with similar hearing levels can experience very different speech understanding abilities. Speech audiometry helps identify how effectively an individual can access and recognise speech at different volume levels

This is typically measured by presenting word lists at a range of intensities and calculating word recognition scores.

ACT (Audible Contrast Threshold) is designed to predict how well a person with hearing loss can understand speech in noisy environments. Instead of using tones or speech, ACT measures a listener’s ability to detect differences in modulated noise, revealing how much sound contrast is needed to distinguish between sounds.

The test is also automatically tailored to each individual’s hearing loss. By incorporating the shape and level of the client’s pure-tone audiogram into the test signals, ACT delivers a personalized measure of real-world speech-in-noise performance.

This test is used to assess how well a person understands speech in noisy environments. It provides a rapid estimate of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) loss, which describes how much louder speech needs to be compared to background noise for the listener to understand it.

Otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) are soft sounds generated by the outer hair cells of a healthy cochlea in response to sound stimulation. Measured using a small probe placed in the ear canal, OAEs provide an objective, ear-specific assessment of cochlear (outer hair cell) function and do not require any behavioural response from the patient. Although OAEs do not assess the entire hearing pathway, they are widely used in newborn hearing screening and are valuable in diagnosing hearing loss conditions.

This test measures changes in middle ear movement in response to loud sounds, which trigger an automatic reflex causing the middle ear muscles to contract. This response helps clinicians differentiate between conductive and sensorineural hearing issues, as well as identify potential eighth cranial nerve involvement. Acoustic reflex testing is well tolerated and most effective when interpreted as part of a comprehensive hearing assessment.