May 15, 2008

Recently advertising by a Calgary and area hearing care provider has been indicating that testing done on a person with normal hearing anywhere other than in a sound booth could indicate a hearing loss where no hearing loss exists. This is somewhat misleading in the nature that if the test was done in a high noise environment it would be possible for this to occur.

However in Alberta strict rules and regulations are set out for in home testing which is provided regularly by many clinics throughout Alberta to bedridden patients. These regulations require the use of insert earphones, which go into the ear canal in a manner similar to earplugs. This allows testing to be done in Alberta in environmental sound levels of up to 48 Db.

All in home testing must have a sound level meter reading done and the levels must be noted on the audiogram, along with the serial number for the sound level metre used. Etymotic Inc., the manufacturer of the insert earphones have done studies on testing in noise that support an accurate test result in levels up to 56 db.