Demonstration of Pure Tone Audiometry

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BACKGROUND

The sine wave produced when the object vibrates in fixed single frequency is called pure tone.

Pure tone audiometry is the testing of the hearing sensitivity of the subject to pure tones. This helps in the diagnosis of types of hearing loss namely conductive deafness, sensorineural deafness, or mixed deafness, and the degree of hearing dysfunction (mild, moderate or severe). This test is a subjective investigation as the results of the test depends on the response of the subject.1

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Pure tone audiometry

Pure tone audiometer is the electronic device used to conduct pure tone audiometry. It is used for air conduction tests and bone conduction tests.

There are two types of audiometer namely subjective and objective. The pure tone audiometer is the subjective type and Impedance/BERA is the objective type.2

The aim of the experiment is to demonstration of pure tone audiometry.

REQUIREMENTS

Subjects:             Human

Apparatus:          Pure tone audiometer, Headphones, Bone vibrators

PROCEDURE

The subject is seated comfortably in a sound proof room for testing pure tone audiometry. Expalin the procedure to the subject. Remove earrings and spectacles.

Testing for air conduction

Place the red headphone on the right ear of the subject, and the diaphragm over the ear canal. The headband should be perfect fit, and not tight. The testing starts with better ear first with tones of short duration starting with 1000 Hz and 30 decibels.

Use the pulsed tone and note the response of the subject. The tone presented lasts for 1-3 seconds. Continue the same process for left ear. Plot the readings with red color for right ear and black color for the left ear.

Testing for bone conduction

The bone vibrators attached to a spring metal headband are placed over the mastoid of the subject. The bone vibrator must not touch the pinna or earphone. Keep the tested ear uncovered, and mask the other ear.

The masking varies from minimum to maximum levels and done either by white noise, narrow band noise or complex noise. The response noted is plotted on the graph.2

CONCLUSION

Pure tone audiometry helps in diagnosing diseases of the ear.

Pure tone audiometry

REFERENCES

  1. https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/drdhiman2/pure-tone-audiometry. Accessed on 26 March 2018.
  2. https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/drtbalu/pure-tone-audiometry-29090374. Accessed on 26 March 2018.

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