June 2023
Want a Hearing Assessment? It’s Easy, Accessible, and Results are Instantaneous
Good hearing is vital for maintaining communication, enjoying life's sounds, and overall well-being. If you suspect that your hearing may not be optimal, it's important to get a hearing test. Fortunately, with Lucid Hearing, the process of getting a hearing test or assessment is straightforward and accessible, and understanding the results will provide valuable insights into your hearing health.
Get Tested – In Person or Online Assessment
Gone are the days when hearing tests were challenging to access. Now, hearing tests are readily available through multiple avenues, including hearing centers. Lucid Hearing offers free hearing evaluations with an audiologist or hearing instrument specialist for those 19 or older at more than 500 hearing centers across the country, including 400+ Sam’s Club locations. The facilities have the necessary equipment to conduct various tests accurately and fairly quickly – usually in about an hour.
In recent years, online hearing assessments/screenings have emerged as a convenient option and can be taken from the comfort of your home using a computer or smartphone. Go to lucidhearing.com/check-hearing to access an online hearing assessment or if you have an LG smart TV (only 2021 or newer models), you can access a hearing assessment through the Independa Health Hub®. This smart TV assessment gives you tailored results and guides you to the type of assistance you may need. If the assessment indicates “likely no hearing loss”, you’ll be guided to consider hearing protection through etymotic.com, a division of Lucid Hearing. For those individuals whose results indicate potential “mild to moderate hearing loss”, Lucid Hearing will recommend over-the-counter hearing aids, which can be conveniently delivered to your home without a trip to an audiologist. You can still make an appointment with a licensed hearing care provider at your nearest Lucid Hearing Center for a free comprehensive hearing evaluation to see if an OTC hearing aid is right for you. For those with an indication of a “severe hearing loss”, a complimentary hearing evaluation with an audiologist or licensed hearing instrument specialist is made available, at the nearest Lucid Hearing Center in a Sam’s Club or Walmart Health location.
Get Tested - And Get Your Results ASAP
During a comprehensive hearing test, several procedures are commonly conducted by an audiologist or hearing instrument specialist to assess your hearing abilities:
• Case History – The provider will ask questions about your lifestyle and communication needs. This will also include some general questions about your health. Understanding this is critical to helping your provider tailor a hearing solution to your needs.
• Pure-Tone Audiometry (Air Conduction): This test determines your hearing thresholds for different frequencies. You'll wear headphones or inserts and respond to tones of varying volumes and pitches.
• Bone conduction – this test is performed via an oscillator that is placed behind the ear. You will respond to tones just like the pure tone air audiometry, but the sound is transmitted by vibrating the cochlea.
• Speech Audiometry: This test evaluates your ability to understand speech. You'll listen to words and repeat them back to the examiner.
• Most comfortable level – This test determines what level of sound is most comfortable for you. You will listen to tones or words at varying levels and indicate what is most comfortable for you.
• Uncomfortable Loudness level – this test determines when sounds become uncomfortably loud for you. You will listen to tone or speech at increasing volume levels and indicate when the signal becomes uncomfortably loud.
Less common procedures that may be performed by some providers are:
• Otoacoustic Emissions (OAE): This test measures the sounds generated by the inner ear (cochlea) in response to stimuli. The audiologist or hearing instrument specialist uses a small probe that emits sounds and measures the cochlear response. OAE testing can provide information about the health of the inner ear and the functionality of the outer hair cells.
• Speech in Noise Testing – There are various types of speech in noise testing, but in all cases you will be asked to repeat words or sentences in the presence of some type of back ground noise.
Good Work! You Took the Test – Now What?
Understanding the Results
Once your hearing test is completed, the audiologist or hearing instrument specialist will review your results with you. Understanding these results will help you understand the status of your hearing health:
- Audiogram: The audiogram is a graphical representation of your hearing thresholds. The graph is arranged with frequency across the top, and volume down the side.The thresholds are plotted on the graph with the lowest pitches to the left and the highest pitches to the right.The volume goes from very soft at the top to loud at the bottom.
- Hearing Threshold Levels: The thresholds represent the softest level you were able to reliably detect the tone for various frequencies, such as 250 Hz, 500 Hz, 1000 Hz, and so on. Comparing these thresholds to the normal range will reveal if any hearing loss is present.
- Speech Discrimination Scores: Speech audiometry results indicate your ability to understand speech. These scores indicate the percentage of words you repeated correctly. This tells the provider how well your brain can discriminate between sounds when things are loud enough to hear. These scores give an indication of your ability to process speech.
Getting a hearing evaluation or screening is a straightforward process, and the results provide valuable insights into your hearing health. By seeking a professional evaluation or utilizing online resources responsibly, you can gain a better understanding of your hearing abilities. Remember, early detection of hearing loss can lead to timely interventions and improved quality of life. In most cases, if testing reveals you need hearing aids, you can get high quality Lucid Hearing aids on the spot – whether you need a prescription solution or whether you qualify for over-the-counter devices (mild to moderate hearing loss only).
Given the ease of accessing and getting a hearing evaluation or screening, don’t put it off any longer. Even if you don’t suspect you have hearing loss, getting a baseline hearing evaluation – and routine checkups as advised by your hearing healthcare provider– should become part of your whole health routine, much like getting your teeth cleaned or getting a physical.