Hello and welcome to the Zero to Finals podcast.

My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be talking to you about audiometry.

And you can find written notes on this topic at zero to finals.com slash audiometry

or in the ear, nose and throat section of the zero definals surgery book. So let's get

straight into it. Audometry involves objectively testing a patient's hearing by playing a variety

of tones and volumes. Air conduction is tested by using headphones and bone conduction is tested using a device called an

oscillator that delivers sounds directly to the bones of the skull.

Audiometry results are recorded on an audiogram.

Audiograms can help identify and differentiate between conductive and sensory neural hearing loss,

and we're going to talk in more detail about how this is done.

Let's talk about audiograms.

Audiograms are charts that document the volume at which patients can hear different tones.

The tone is measured as frequency in hertz, which is plotted on the x-axis,

from low to high-pitched. The volume is measured in decibels, which is plotted on the

y-axis, from loud at the bottom to quiet at the top. The lower down the chart, the higher the decibels and the louder the volume.

The higher up the y-axis, the more sensitive the patient's hearing is.

Hearing is tested to establish the quietest volume at which a patient can hear each frequency.

This level is plotted on the chart.

The louder the sound required for the patient to hear,

the worse their hearing is,

and the lower on the chart they will plot.

For example, a thousand hertz sound

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