Audiology

Audiology is a department that works under the ENT (ear-nose-throat) clinic and helps ENT doctors in the diagnosis of diseases with many test techniques. Tests are administered by audiometrists.

Tests performed in the audiology outpatient clinic are; audiometry, speech audiometry, tympanometry, acoustic reflex, and otoacoustic emission.

Audiometric tests

These are subjective tests that determine the degree, and type of hearing loss, speech intelligibility, and the discomfort threshold of the sound performed with an audiometry device, and are applied in special test cabinets and based on patients’ responses. The test consists of 2 stages;

• Pure tone audiometry

• Speech audiometry

When hearing loss is suspected, pure tone audiometry can be used to assess or more fully assess hearing deficits by specifically controlling certain frequencies. After evaluating at certain frequencies, the degree of hearing loss is learned by comparing the results with normal hearing level results.

Subsequent speech audiometry is important for determining how well the person’s perception of speech is. This test is especially important for elderly patients who say “I can hear but I can not understand” or children with processing disorders. Speech audiometry evaluates the following parameters;

• SRT (the threshold for receiving speech)

• SDS (Speech discrimination)

• MCL (Most comfortable loudness)

• UCL (Unsettling loudness)

Tympanometric tests

Tympanometry is a test battery that measures middle ear pressure by applying pressure to the ear. It is an objective test that reflects the movement of the eardrum and the ossicles in the middle ear and shows whether the eustachian tube is working.

Tympanometry test has four results;

• Tympanogram

• Acoustic reflex

• Reflex decay

• Eustachian tube function tests

Thanks to the tympanogram, middle ear inflammation, which is common in preschool and school-age children, is diagnosed. Acoustic reflex and reflex decay are auxiliary tests to learn the cause of hearing loss.

Eustachian tube dysfunction is diagnosed with eustachian tube function tests, which causes pain, discharge, and pressure in the ears when it fails to function.

Otoacoustic emission (OAE)

It is an objective test that is used to determine whether there is hearing loss in newborn babies and also indicates whether there is hearing loss originating from the inner ear.

This short-term test, which can be applied to people of all ages, helps diagnose as well as monitoring the effects of treatment.

Diseases we diagnose in the audiology clinic

In the clinic, diseases are examined in 4 areas according to the anatomical structure; the outer ear, middle ear, inner ear, and neural areas.

External ear diseases;

• Earwax blockage

• Foreign body entering the ear canal

• Benign tumors

• External ear inflammation

• Inflammation of the hairs in the outer ear

• Mikrotia / anoti (the baby’s outer ear is not fully developed)

• Atresia (the baby’s outer ear canal is not fully developed)

Middle ear diseases;

• Middle ear inflammation (acute, serous, or chronic)

• Glomus tumor (a benign tumor)

• Cholesteatoma

• Eustachian tube dysfunction

• Rupture of the eardrum

• Ossicular dislocation

• Otosclerosis

The inner ear and neural diseases;

• Noise-induced hearing loss

• Aging (presbycusis)

• Head trauma

• Viral or bacterial diseases

• Autoimmune inner ear disease

• Congenital malformation in the inner ear

• Ménière’s disease

• Tumors