Can quantify and qualify hearing loss.
A gap between air and bone thresholds suggests a conductive hearing loss.
Equal drops in air and bone thresholds suggests sensineural hearing loss.
Impaired word discrimination suggests the presence of retrocochlear pathology.
Measures hearing thresholds of pure tones through a frequency range of 250 to 8000 Hz.
Involves word recognition tests to evaluate speech comprehension, bone conduction testing for otosclerosis or other conduction deficits, acoustic reflexes to test for ossicular chain abnormalities such as otosclerosis, and tympanometry to assess the middle ear for disease.