The Limits of Audiograms

[HootOwl]

Hey all,

So I recently was able to map one of my horrible reactive tones to exactly 2700 Hz.

What's interesting is that when I do a sweep test my hearing immediately and dramatically dips out at this exact frequency. As in, at a certain volume 2680 Hz is fine and 2720 Hz is fine, but at 2700 Hz I would say the audibility decreased by at least half (possibly more).

It got me thinking about my other tinnitus sounds and all the other notches I could possibly have that aren't going to show up on an Audiogram. The only notch my extended Audiogram showed was between 16 kHz and 17 kHz at around 30-40 dB. You look at my 8k Audiogram and see "no loss" but after sweep testing this couldn't be further from the truth.

This made me realize that more of us might have more hearing loss than we originally thought, at very, VERY specific frequencies (probably our tinnitus frequencies for those with tonal). I know if I hadn't done the sweep test I would have never discovered it, because the decrease in volume only really jumped out at me relative to the other tones and also that at 2 kHz and 3 kHz my hearing is pristine.

I should note that I had to sweep quite slowly since a lot of sweeps will blast through 50 dB intervals in a split second or more and you might not catch the dip in volume. This was happening to me at first.

 

[Michael B]

My tinnitus is at 6kHz and I have hearing loss specifically at 6kHz.

 

[Niatoolit]

Hello everyone,

I was thinking about the efficiency of audiograms the other day.

Every audiogram I have had before on ENTs was tonal. Meaning specific tones in a wide range of frequencies and volumes.

According to them my hearing is fine except a hearing damage reduction of 10 decibels on the 6-8 kHz frequency spot.

So, what if there is no hearing damage but instead you just can't here those frequencies on the audiogram because your tinnitus masks them?

Anyone thought of this before? How could doctors/scientists missed such important and obvious flaw of their official hearing measurement method?

Thank you for your time, looking forward to hear your thoughts on this.

 

[Tybs]

Hello everyone,

I was thinking about the efficiency of audiograms the other day.

Every audiogram I have had before on ENTs was tonal. Meaning specific tones in a wide range of frequencies and volumes.

According to them my hearing is fine except a hearing damage reduction of 10 decibels on the 6-8 kHz frequency spot.

So, what if there is no hearing damage but instead you just can't here those frequencies on the audiogram because your tinnitus masks them?

Anyone thought of this before? How could doctors/scientists missed such important and obvious flaw of their official hearing measurement method?

Thank you for your time, looking forward to hear your thoughts on this.

This is a thought I've been having plenty of times by now. I've had three similar audiograms at three different locations.

The first showed no noteworthy issues.

The second one was on a rough day, where the sounds we're having a field party. The audiogram showed a few minor dips, and one low (8000 kHz, 20dB) dip at the edge of hearing loss. No doubt that small dip caused all of my different fluctuating sounds (if I believe the specialists there).

The third one was on an average day in Germany, Regensburg, at the tinnitus clinic there. The audiogram turned out pretty much perfect, and the ENT concluded I had no hearing problems at all. He went looking into other more plausible causes of my T instead.

IMO, audiograms can help, but they only tell you what you cán hear reliably, not what you can nót hear.