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Help reading my audiogram

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Hello!
I just got my results from my hearing test back and am wondering if an audiologist or someone qualified can take a look at the results. I’ve uploaded the the results HERE107 and am looking for any and all information possible. Am I a candidate for hearing aids? Would they do anything if I did get them? Any specifics are great!

Thank you!

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Why are you asking? What was the reason you sought a hearing test. You have a very marginal loss at this point. You don’t have a serious loss that I can see needing aids. But there may be a reason you might share.

The reason I ask is because I’ve yet to see a doctor to tell me the results and I’m unsure how to interpret these. I also feel like my hearing in my left ear is much quieter than in my right. I guess I thought someone here might know and be able to help.

I guess the reason that I posted on this forum is because I thought I could get help explaining things to me. I have read the sites that tell how to read the , but for some reason can’t make sense of mine. All I know is that I was told a mild hearing loss and tinnitus, nothing more. I have yet to see my , whom I’m told will probably want me to have an . Before I go to my ENT, I was hoping that someone could explain in depth what my results mean for me. I went to the doctor initially because of hearing issues in my left ear and ringing constantly in both.

If anyone has some good insight for me, I’d appreciate it.

Thanks again!

P.S. If this is not meant to be here or I shouldn’t be posting this, please let me know and I’ll remove the posts.

Hi,

of course you are in the right place, but as long as you don´t give detailled information about you and your hearing problems, all that can be said is already said in documents like the one Doc Jake linked to.

The fact that you even notice worse hearing on your left leads me to the question if something happened that made your hearing worse.

Most people lose their hearing over a long period of time and would not notice, because the loss comes gradually. Usually, people with a loss like yours don´t wear an aid.

Hey,

Thanks for letting me know. I’ve always seemed like my hearing out of my left ear isn’t nearly as good as my right ear. More recently, I’d say within the past 6 months to 1 year, my hearing in my left ear has progressive lessened. In my left ear, things sound a bit muffled and I tend to “lose words.” If I’m in a noisy area or even have some background noise, I have difficulty hearing everything, most of the time missing what is being said. I turn the TV up louder, but am constantly told it’s way too loud, even though it doesn’t seem to be for me. I have ringing in both of my ears that’s worsened, again, over 6 months to a year. I’ve tried using a fan when I sleep, turning on the TV, listening to music, but nothing seems to help the ringing.

I’ve been in a car accident where my head hit the steering wheel, just before the airbag went off and I went unconscious. Also, two times in two months, I blew a bicycle inner tube while pumping it up in a closed 2 car garage. After I blew one inner tube, I heard ringing in my ears for several days. Other than those instances, I don’t recall any other times when my hearing could have been damaged. I typically don’t wear headphones and don’t play loud music.

Why don’t people with a loss like mine wear a hearing aid? I feel like this is a significant loss, especially compared to my right ear.

If any other information is needed to help me figure this out, please ask. I’ll be happy to give as many answers as possible.

Thanks again!

In reply to @Musician_72

The reason I asked you to go further is that you don’t have a serious loss. The Word Recognition Scores are actually better for your “bad” ear than for the good one; although, that could be somewhat poor testing. Even those with excellent hearing don’t always get ever word but the brain does some context adapting.

Under normal criteria, you don’t have a problem except for the tinnitus. Your decision to consult an is a good one. He can help you with the situation that has lead you to getting help and you are doing it right.

Here’s a tinnitus link1.

In reply to @LePigeonVert

@LePigeonVert said:

Why don’t people with a loss like mine wear a hearing aid? I feel like this is a significant loss, especially compared to my right ear.

You have a “mild hearing loss,” which implies little or no impairment. But even a mild loss can make soft speech sounds (consonants and fricatives) inaudible, so you may find yourself really straining to understand people. I would suggest trying a pair of hearing aids to see if they help make speech clearer and reduce your listening fatigue. They may also help alleviate your tinnitus.

I’ve never heard of anyone hitting their head before the airbag deployed either, but I can say it happened to me. I was rushed to the ER after the crash and had a full work up. I don’t have brain damage, but had memory loss for several weeks.

I assume you mean that people would like my and be able to get rid of their hearing aids. If that’s the case, I’m not sure what that has to do with anything. I’m not downplaying anyone else’s hearing loss, nor am I saying mine is bad. I am saying that I, personally, have a difficult time hearing a lot from my left ear.

I’m frustrated. Until I can talk to my , I can only post on forums. To be told there is only one interpretation of my audiogram, I’m quite confused with so many different responses, here and other forums alike.

In reply to @rasmus_braun

We are all just saying that your decision to visit an is well advised. The test result is quite average for an adult. You do have hearing related problems that should be medically examined. This goes beyond what a hearing aid clinic can assist you with.

In reply to @LePigeonVert

@LePigeonVert said:

I’ve never heard of anyone hitting their head before the airbag deployed either, but I can say it happened to me. I was rushed to the ER after the crash and had a full work up. I don’t have brain damage, but had memory loss for several weeks.

I assume you mean that people would like my audiogram and be able to get rid of their hearing aids. If that’s the case, I’m not sure what that has to do with anything. I’m not downplaying anyone else’s hearing loss, nor am I saying mine is bad. I am saying that I, personally, have a difficult time hearing a lot from my left ear.

I’m frustrated. Until I can talk to my ENT, I can only post on forums. To be told there is only one interpretation of my audiogram, I’m quite confused with so many different responses, here and other forums alike.

A friend of mine hit a tree at over 60MPH after having a seizure and his head hit the windshield and then the airbag went off and he hit the headrest with such force it lacerated the back of his head basically from ear to ear, so I believe you.

You’ve had two/three things happen to you that could of caused your hearing problems: the car accident and the two tires going off, so you could of had better than normal hearing prior to the accidents and now that you’ve lost some of your hearing you notice that something isn’t right. If it’s really bothering you than ’s might help. The visit to the is also a good choice to rule out anything medically going on other than the slight hearing loss.

Several years ago on here we had a guy from India with similar problems and a slight hearing loss caused by a friend setting off a firecracker next to his ear and he ended up trying HA’s and ended up keeping them. If you want to see if you can find his posts his name was Dipshitt (I’m not kidding!). Good luck!

In the graphs, the shaded area is normal hearing. You dip a very little bit below normal in your left ear at 4000 Hz. It would be very unusual to wear a hearing aid for such a slight loss.

You might try tinnitus maskers. Some people here use those to good effect. I would try one that’s specifically meant to mask the tinnitus – your fan and music, etc. may not be generating sounds at the right frequency. My tinnitus is actually louder when I listen to music.

Our are similar up to about 4000, but mine drops off sharply to 70 at 6000. I am pretty satisfied wearing hearing aids. I am starting to notice some consonants that I do NOT hear when I am not wearing them. I discussed with my audiologist about the need to keep the brain stimulated, so I am wearing them more now.

@seb said:

A friend of mine hit a tree at over 60MPH after having a seizure and his head hit the windshield and then the airbag went off and he hit the headrest with such force it lacerated the back of his head basically from ear to ear, so I believe you.

You’ve had two/three things happen to you that could of caused your hearing problems: the car accident and the two tires going off, so you could of had better than normal hearing prior to the accidents and now that you’ve lost some of your hearing you notice that something isn’t right. If it’s really bothering you than HA’s might help. The visit to the ENT is also a good choice to rule out anything medically going on other than the slight hearing loss.

Several years ago on here we had a guy from India with similar problems and a slight hearing loss caused by a friend setting off a firecracker next to his ear and he ended up trying HA’s and ended up keeping them. If you want to see if you can find his posts his name was Dipshitt (I’m not kidding!). Good luck!

After hitting the steering wheel, I remember being thrown back by the airbag and that’s about it. I did have memory loss for a bit there, but it did return. The loss is bothering me, enough that I felt seeing an was necessary, but from most of the posts, it seems that nobody recommends ’s. I’m going to call the doctor today if I don’t get a call soon to follow up.

@daisymae said:

In the graphs, the shaded area is normal hearing. You dip a very little bit below normal in your left ear at 4000 Hz. It would be very unusual to wear a hearing aid for such a slight loss.

You might try tinnitus maskers. Some people here use those to good effect. I would try one that’s specifically meant to mask the tinnitus – your fan and music, etc. may not be generating sounds at the right frequency. My tinnitus is actually louder when I listen to music.

Are tinnitus maskers the things that generate a white noise though? If they are, I’d think it would hinder my hearing even more. Plus, the tinnitus is in both ears, so I’m not sure how that works.

@KarenK said:

Our audiograms are similar up to about 4000, but mine drops off sharply to 70 at 6000. I am pretty satisfied wearing hearing aids. I am starting to notice some consonants that I do NOT hear when I am not wearing them. I discussed with my audiologist about the need to keep the brain stimulated, so I am wearing them more now.

Do you think if you didn’t have it drop off so sharply that you would wear hearing aids?

In reply to @LePigeonVert

Hi,

some more thoughts.

The reason why people with a loss like that usually don´t wear aids is that with a loss less or equal to 30 one usually doesn´t have problems understanding speech.

The frequencies and volumes where speech resides can be seen in the “speech banana”:

http://www.agbell.org/SpeechBanana/7

I know that there are different versions of that diagram, but it´s ok to get the general concept.

There are two likely reasons why you even notice your hearing loss:

  • it came suddenly. Sudden hearing loss is always noticed, because everything sounds different to what you are used to. People with excellent hearing notice their hearing loss when they have a cold, even if their loss is only 5 dB and they still have excellent hearing (compared to people with hearing loss).
  • the hearing is worse than on your right ear, so you have something to compare to

Then there is a more unlikely reason: When they did that test, did they put some noise on your right ear when they tested your left ear? Did you hear the sounds really on your left ear? The hearing on your right is so excellent that you might pick up sounds that were meant for your left ear. This could mean that your hearing on the left is actually worse than what is shown in the . However, this is unlikely and not possible if the measurements were done correctly.

The reason that people with a mild loss like that don´t wear aids is that there are side-effects. You have artifacts, and it might be that you hear worse with the aid than without (at least in real-life situations).

In case you want to try an aid (you surely don´t need an aid on the right side), I´d do the following:

  • use a very , best would be a bte-aid with receiver in canal and open domes
  • switch off all effects like noise-reduction, feedback-suppression. For directionality, use a pinna-simulation (this simulates the directionality of the healthy ear, so will match your healthy right side). I suggest this because you don´t have those effects on the right side, so this would sound un-balanced.
  • after getting used to the aid for some days, have your hearing tested with and without aids for speech in noise. There are tests for that, QuickSin is one of them. Or, better: Have that test done before you got used to the aids without the aids, then get used to them, and have it redone with aids a week later.

Then you have an objective measurement if you can profit from aids or not. I´m quite sure that the aids will be useless in quiet situations, because there you will be able to understand everything with your right ear alone.

Hey!

Thank you for your very informative reply!

When they gave me the test, I had headphones on and beeps coming through, but no other noise. At one point, I did have one where something went behind my left ear and had noise from the headphones only in my right ear.

Regarding a hearing aid, I’m still unsure. I’ve been told yes, try it, I’ll like it, and I’ve been told to skip it, my hearing loss is too mild. I’ll be seeing my soon and an audiologist possibly after.

Again, thank you for your reply!

Edited

I second that. Also I´d like to add that it is quite likely that an aid won´t help you - but the only way to find that out is by trying. And don´t forget to get objective measurements if the aid REALLY helps you.

I think I may have found an audiologist who will offer a 30 day trial and no return fee that’s down the road from me. First, I think I’ll visit my to rule out anything else and get her opinion of everything.

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