Getting the best help is important in preventing your hearing from standing in the way of living your life to the fullest. If you’re looking for the best hearing aids in Walnut Creek, look no further than the Walnut Creek Hearing Aid Center. At the Walnut Creek Hearing Aid Center, you are provided with all the services needed to resolve your hearing problems with the utmost accuracy and efficiency. However, before your hearing problem can be solved, it must first be determined what the problem actually is. That’s where hearing tests come into play.
Dr. Gil Magilen of the Walnut Creek Hearing Aid Center knows the importance of hearing tests and informs clients of ways in which they can check their own hearing at home. With a PhD in biophysics from U.C. Berkeley, Dr. Magilen knows exactly how hearing should be evaluated.
In order to target a client’s exact hearing needs, he must first undergo a hearing test to evaluate his hearing status. According to Dr. Magilen, The Pure Tone test checks the capability of the client to hear sound at different frequencies. The test results are displayed as a graph—the vertical scale representing the loudness of the sounds, and the horizontal showing the frequencies of the sounds tested. The finished graph, also known as the audiogram, will ultimately display the amount of hearing loss at each frequency. The further down each point on the graph is, the more severe the hearing loss.
A second hearing test called The Speech Discrimination Test determines a client’s ability to understand speech. The client repeats words spoken to him by the audiometrist. The score is then measured in percentages. A person with normal hearing would be expected to get 100% of the words correct. Severe impairment is indicated by a score of only 35% accuracy.
Regardless of your hearing state, Dr. Magilen can tackle any problem of speech incomprehensibility. In addition to advanced in-office hearing tests, Dr. Magilen provides clients with “do-it-yourself” hearing tests on his website. The Whisper Hearing Test is a simple way to assess your need for a visit to Dr. Magilen. Your ability to decipher your friend’s whisper within an approximate five foot radius will determine whether your hearing aids are tuned correctly for you. Paying attention to your comprehension of words spoken will also inform you of your hearing aid’s capacity. Be sure to test the hearing aid’s ability to control loudness as well, says Dr. Magilen. In fact, Dr. Magilen is the only professional in the field who fully addresses all of these critical issues simultaneously.
Another do-it-yourself home hearing test option is the “Hearing in Noise Test.” Seated four to six feet apart, in a noisy restaurant, close your eyes and have your friend speak in a voice slightly louder than the background noise. If you are having trouble repeating back the lines, your hearing aids are not giving you the ability to separate between speech and background noise. For clarity of hearing, there is absolutely no one better to contact than Dr. Magilen.
The information in the article is not intended to substitute for the medical expertise and advice of your healthcare provider. We encourage you to discuss any decisions about treatment or care with an appropriate healthcare provider.