I've had constant tinnitus on the right side for a while now. It's quite mild and not too intrusive and I finally got round to getting a hearing test yesterday.
I had a "Pure Tone Audiogram", and the results weren't great, I have typical indicators of noise induced hearing loss.
I thought I'd post this, as a courtesy to others on what the test is about, and why you shouldn't leave it too late to get YOUR ears tested.
Men being men, are typically reluctant to go to the Docs, because we are hardy macho hunter killers, (Monty Python - "it's just a flesh wound" sketch comes to mind). Get over this ridiculous reasoning and get em checked!! I wish I had 10 years ago.
The Audiogram test consists of you sitting in an iso booth wearing calibrated headphones.
The doc plays white noise noise in one ear, and a sine wave pure tone in the other.
When you can hear the sine wave - you press a button on a little handheld thing.
The test seems mainly concerned with your ability to hear speech clearly, especially in the presence of background noise like a pub, or bar. Hence the tones are played at a range of frequencies that cover this sort of spectrum.
My tests were @ 250, 500, 1000, 2000, 4000 & 8000Hz, which is the norm I believe.
The tones are played at various intensity levels and when you start to deliver inconsistent results pressing the button - you've reached your hearing threshold for that frequency and the level is marked on a graph. You can't cheat - you either hear it, or you don't! or you think you do, and that's where the inconsistent button pressing starts I guess.
The scale on the graph is dBHL (dB Hearing Level or Loss I think), which is a scale normalised for 'normal hearing'. I can't get too medical about it, as I'm obviously not a doc, but basically there's a range in which you have normal, or better than average hearing, and then lower levels show reduced sensitivity to whatever the frequency was.
'Normal' is in the range from 0 to about 20dBHL, and better than average would be -10. (The negative figures are above the zero line on the graph).
My results showed a drop down in sensitivity (i.e. hearing loss) from 1000hz to a big notch at 4000hz and then it got better again going up to 8000hz. The doc says this is typical of noise induced damage, as the bits of the ear that are most easily exposed to noise damage cover these frequencies. The higher and lower bits are physically more protected somewhere in the ear apparently.
So that's about it. Get your ears tested, like you would your eyes and the rest of your manly (or girlie) bits!!
........ because..... and here's the IMPORTANT bit
You don't feel any pain as your hearing is slowly damaged.
The degradation is slow and you might not notice it at all.
(Excepting obvious ringing after club nites, gigs etc).
My results are in the range of 'mild hearing loss' - Any more and I'd be in to moderate. But the thing is, even now I don't really notice it - it was the tinnitus that made me go to the docs in the first place, not any feeling that I was going deaf, or couldn't hear certain frequencies, or speech clearly - but I clearly have some probs according to the graph, so now I wonder what I'm missing hearing!! and for how long it's been like this.
Anyway, don't want to sound depressing or anything, but if maybe you get your ears checked and find out that you have small/tiny problems starting to show now - you will be shocked in to looking after your ears better for the future eh. And will have some time to do something about it.
I'd like to maybe suggest a SOS article, on things like tinnitus and hearing tests. Especially for Pros in the industry who might need more extensive tests. i.e. What kinds of test there are etc. Just some general info would do, or maybe a more detailed article with contribution written by an appropriate medical expert, should that be feasible.
Luckily my hearing isn't that bad, I can still hear the Eurovision song contest winning entry
p.s. I didn't mind sharing this personal info, as I'm not a Pro in the industry - I don't rely on my ears for a living. I do this for (admittedly wallet denting) fun, gearlust and a love of music.
I've worked around noisy construction sites, noisy data centres, loud rehearsal rooms etc. Who knows where the damage comes from over time. Is your iPod deafening you! The doctor did say that this type of result is becoming more frequent now in people my age. (wrong side of 30s, just)! I'm sure all the Pros here already ensure that you have your yearly hearing test booked well in advance.
, but I suspect many typical naive young folk (such as myself a few decades ago) take robust good health completely for granted & likely do not worry about noise exposure if there's been no obvious immediate consequences 
. I would argue that identifying hearing loss early brings the problem to your attention that you can then take steps to minimize further damage, if it's noise induced. 
