Audiometry
Reading a pure tone audiogram (symbols, air-bone gap, WHO grades, classic shapes), speech scores, tympanogram types and acoustic reflexes, with worked examples and when the result means MRI, steroids or a hearing aid.
Tier 2Medical sciences concept
Written with AI assistance and fact-checked against the sources below. For exam study, not clinical decisions. How notes are made
At a glance
- Pure tone audiometry measures the quietest tone heard at each frequency. Air conduction tests the whole pathway; bone conduction tests the cochlea and nerve.
- Compare air with bone: a gap means conductive, no gap means sensorineural, both means mixed.
- Speech audiometry and the tympanogram add what the pure tones can't: retrocochlear clues and middle ear mechanics.
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Sources
- World report on hearing (grades of hearing loss)World Health Organization, 2021
- Clinical practice guideline: age-related hearing loss (Tsai Do BS et al. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 2024;170 Suppl 2:S1-S54)American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation, 2024
- Clinical practice guideline: sudden hearing loss (update) (Chandrasekhar SS et al. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 2019;161:S1-S45)American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation, 2019
- Hearing Services ProgramAU/NZAustralian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
- Model Code of Practice: managing noise and preventing hearing loss at workAU/NZSafe Work Australia
- Audiologic management of individuals receiving cochleotoxic drug therapy (guideline)American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 1994
- Last updated
- 14 November 2026
What changed
- 14 November 2026 Personal emails, About story and Australian-style copy