| Hello
first at all I want to present me: I'm a PHD with a degree in audiology and I'm making a lot of research on hearing loss and tinnitus in musician, here in Italy.
There are some points that are unclear to many many musician:
1) The audiologist test for your ear is something very uncertain. They check only for 7 frequencies and they draw a line between them. This is a standard method, but for my research and your ear I use to split the audio spectrum in octaves. For my standard audio test, I use something like 24 points and very often I can find deep and hearing loss that the standard test doesn't find. In 2005 the standard test is a very low quality test, but I can understand one ear test cannot be long as an hour, like mine.
2) If your ear test seems to be right but you hear wrong, you are right!! A lot of persons I examined had hearing loss in between the frequencies the standard test checks. And more illness can be found to cause hearing loss, not only ear but also cardiovascolar and muscolar reasons.
3) It's not true that max frequency is 8 kHz for hearing test. My clinical audiometer goes 20-20.000 Hz and I use to make a high frequency test tone to everybody. Today we have only standard curves until 16.000 Hz, but it'sw easy to find also the curves for 20.000. Please note that tha classic audiometer is not requested to have more than standard frequency.
4) Ear impairment is a two stage illness: it could be mechanical or/and it could be neurological. My research on tinnitus confirm that musicians have more frequently neurological ear loss and I have to stop here, because the next step is rehabilitation, under research.
5) If you have tinnitus, if you are a musician for years and if you think to have an ear loss, there are more tests to check the origin of ear loss, but try to find an audiologist can do a better hear test
For what I understand, audiologists make their work right, but we are in 2005 and not in 1975 and it's time to be more clear in how you ear,
Luca
ps: sorry for my bad english :-) |