We want to understand what is important to you to achieve with your hearing health. We also need to rule out any underlying medical concerns, so you will be asked some questions that might not seem relevant.

We will look at the outside of your ears and inside your ear canals with a special torch called an otoscope. We pay particular attention to the health of the ear drums, and middle ears behind them

This test gives us an indication of your hearing acuity, or the softest sounds you can hear. It’s an important test for quantifying the nature of any hearing loss. You will listen to tones through headphones, one ear at a time.

For many people, the most significant hearing challenge they face is hearing conversation in loud noisy places. The “Quick Speech-In-Noise” test is designed to measure the degree to which people struggle with understanding speech in a complex sound environment (like a restaurant). You will listen to sentences, played in gradually increasing background noise.

In this test you listen to words played through a loudspeaker. The results show how the full auditory system, including the brain, processes sound.

The Audible Contrast Threshold test is the latest cutting edge method for testing speech intelligibility in background noise. You will hear short bursts of static noise, interrupted periodically by a siren-like sound. This test complements the QuickSIN results, and helps to inform hearing aid recommendations and settings with scientific data.

The Acceptable Noise Level (ANL) test is a measure of how much background noise a person is willing to “put up with” while listening to running speech.