Audiograms are made using an audiometer, a machine used to test a person’s hearing.
It works by transmitting sound waves directly to the inner ear through headphones or inserts, and also by bone conduction. It relies on the person being tested indicating when they can hear the tones presented, down to the softest level.
An audiogram is a graph that visually shows the softest sounds the person can hear at different pitches or frequencies.
The closer the marks are to the top of the graph, the softer the sounds that person can hear. Where the results fall on the audiogram specify the different degrees of hearing loss, shown on this audiogram:
The Audiologist plots the results for the two ears separately and may also measure bone conduction thresholds which show the level of hearing at the inner ear or cochlea.
In the image of an audiogram above, the right ear is shown with red circles and the left ear with blue crosses. This person has a moderate to severe sensorineural hearing loss in the higher ranges of frequency.
