What Does a Hearing Test Show?
When you complete a hearing test, your results are displayed on a chart called an audiogram. This specialized graph gives us a picture of how well you hear different sounds.
How an Audiogram Works
- The horizontal axis shows different sound frequencies (pitches), from low to high.
- The vertical axis shows sound volume (loudness), measured in decibels (dB).
- Your hearing thresholds—the softest sounds you can hear at each pitch—are plotted as data points on the graph.
What It Reveals
An audiogram can show:
- Which pitches you hear clearly and which ones are harder for you to detect.
- The degree of hearing loss, whether it’s mild, moderate, severe, or profound.
- Patterns of hearing loss, such as difficulty with high-pitched sounds (like birds chirping) or certain ranges of speech.
Often, early hearing loss shows up first in specific frequency ranges. That’s why you may see dips in certain areas of your audiogram while other pitches remain within the normal range.