Audiometric Evaluation The purpose of the basic hearing test, or audiogram, is to determine whether you have a hearing loss.

Specifically, at what frequencies (low, middle, or high tones), and to what degree (mild, moderate, severe, or profound); if the loss is one-sided or on both sides; and whether the loss is conductive, sensorineural, or a mixed loss. A pure-tone hearing test determines your ability to hear sounds at different frequencies. It determines your thresholds for these sounds, the faintest sound that your ear can consistently perceive. Tones of low and high frequencies are presented at various levels of loudness. The record of your pure-tone hearing test results is called an audiogram. Hearing loss due to problems with the external ear is usually conductive. The most common cause of hearing loss worldwide is earwax plugging the ear canal. The wax plug interferes with sound waves reaching the eardrum. Similarly, narrowing of the ear canal due to inflammation, bony growths, or from aural atresia will cause a conductive hearing loss. Problems with the eardrum can also interfere with the fidelity of sound transmission. A thickened, scarred, or torn eardrum cant vibrate normally. This leads to a conductive hearing loss because sound loses energy as it passes through the eardrum. Fluid or blood behind the eardrum from infection, trauma, or allergies can also interfere with the normal vibration of the tympanic membrane and lead to a conductive hearing loss. Hearing loss due to damage to inner ear structures is typically sensorineural. This term refers to a loss occurring either in the cochlea (sensory) or the hearing nerve itself (neural) or both. There are many causes of inner ear hearing loss. The most common is age-related loss, or presbycusis. Other causes include toxins (mercury, some intravenous antibiotics), loud noise exposure, trauma (fracture through the cochlea), viral or bacterial inner ear infections, developmental abnormalities of the inner ear, and tumors. Each of these causes affects the inner ear in different ways, but many of them lead directly to hair cell loss. While outer and middle ear causes of conductive hearing loss can often be improved with surgery, inner ear hearing loss is usually irreversible. Once hair cells have been damaged or lose their function, there is no way to repair or replace them. The primary treatment for people with some, but not total, sensorineural behind the eardrum from infection, trauma, or allergies can also interfere with the normal vibration of the tympanic membrane and lead to a conductive hearing loss. How many Boilermakers experience hearing loss? While less than 10% of general population is hearing impaired, it is estimated that approximately 50% of Boilermakers and other heavy industrial trades, have hearing loss. Did you know? Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL) is not a new problem. Back in 1882, an American researcher named Holt did the first reported study on deafness among Boilermakers and coined the term Boilermakers Ears.

Examples of activities that will affect hearing. Slug hammer 120 to 150 dB Grinding 100 dB Arc air gouging 115 dB

How can I protect my hearing at work? The best method to preventing occupational deafness is to reduce noise at the source by engineering methods. However, in certain workplace conditions there is very little or nothing one can do to reduce noise at the source. In such workplaces workers wear hearing protectors to reduce the amount of noise reaching the ears.