Before having your hearing assessed, it may be useful to undergo hearing screening with a hearing health nurse. Hearing screening provides an overview of a person’s hearing. While it has no diagnostic value, hearing screening is a fairly accurate type of evaluation that can detect reduced hearing in people susceptible to hearing loss or occupational deafness.

Who is at risk?

People who work in loud environments are susceptible to hearing loss. For example, factory workers, truckers and musicians are all at risk. Additionally, certain habits and activities (such as listening to loud music with headphones on, hunting and playing music) can exceed the recommended noise exposure thresholds, meaning that anyone can be affected by hearing loss.

Preparation and previous conditions

Patients must rest their ears for at least 16 hours before the hearing screening appointment. This prevents the test from picking up on temporary noise-related hearing loss, which may affect the results. Patients must also mention relevant problems or information (e.g. otitis, earwax plugs, previous surgeries) that may influence or affect the interpretation of the results.

The screening

Hearing screening can be performed at work or at a Lobe clinic. The meeting with the hearing health nurse should take around 15 minutes. During the interview, they will ask the patient questions to determine potential risk factors.

During the screening, the nurse will explain how to do the test. The patient will be asked to wear headphones. They will hear noises at different frequencies (hertz) and volumes (decibels). Each time they hear a sound, they will be asked to press a button. Each ear will be evaluated separately.

At the end of the test, the hearing health nurse will inform the patient whether they have passed or failed the test. If they fail the test or an anomaly is found, the hearing health nurse will refer the patient to an audiologist, who will perform a full hearing assessment. If the nurse suspects a problem with the ear itself, they will recommend that the patient see an ENT doctor.

Generally, we recommend hearing screening every two years for people at risk and every five years for the rest of the population.