Audiology 3- Pure tone and Speech Audiometry

Question 1

what is bone conduction audiometry?

Answer 1

• sends the sound directly into the skull, bypassing the outer and middle ear and measure cochlear sensitivity only
• have to use masking to determine which ear was responsible for the detection of the signal

Question 2

what is air conduction audiometry?

Answer 2

• headphones are placed on or in the ears
• the signal travels though the air to the middle ear then the cochlea

Question 3

why do both air and bone conduction audiometry

Answer 3

• used to identify the hearing threshold, gives the degree, type and configuration of hearing loss

Question 4

what is speech audiometry?

Answer 4

• uses speech sounds as the stimuli for a hearing test so assesses the ability to discriminate speech

Question 5

why is speech audiometry performed?

Answer 5

• measures the threshold for speech
• quantification of speech recognition ability at a comfortable listening level (how many words are they getting right at a comfortable level)
  -examines the impact of background noise on speech perception in normal and impaired ears
• hearing aid fitting
• assistance in differential diagnosis between cochlea and neural hearing losses