Last week I visited a hearing care specialist who performed an audiogram which looked different from my usual ones. The top image is the new audiogram, while the bottom one is from a month ago and aligns better with my typical results.
Should I request a retake? I remember the headset wasn’t fully enclosing my ears; it was a different model which was placed on my ears.
Or am I overestimating the impact of the audiogram on the hearing aid adjustments/gains?
Probably less impact than you think, but the recent one isn’t great.
If you’ve got a real concern, mention the difference to whoever is fitting you and ask them to re-test you with inserts.
We don’t use headphones for exactly this reason.
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I think a 10 db variance is normal- like you say, headphone fit, but there may also be tension in your eardrums (incomplete pressure differential), or fatigue. I have also seen audiologist errors. If the volume goes up very quickly there may a delay for the last volume scored for a frequency. Since the difference is both sides I would rather suspect some of these causes. If you have not noticed anything amiss yourself, I would not worry until the next assessment. Also, this kind of variation makes little difference on how your HAs are fit.
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Also we should consider tinnitus. My tinnitus is only noticeable during hearing tests and causes slight variations since I sometimes cannot differentiate tinnitus and hearing test signals. Other than hearin tests I dont have much problem with tinnitus
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What do you guys do use if not a headphone?
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Inserts with either Radio Ear or Etymotic drivers. Way more accurate and reproducible results, plus better in background noise and more effective for masking separation too.
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