The Weber test uses a tuning fork to determine if a patient has hearing loss in one ear. If the patient hears the sound differently in each ear, it may be a sign of conductive or sensorineural hearing loss. Conductive hearing loss shows increased hearing in the affected ear, while sensorineural hearing loss shows the opposite.
The Weber test is a screening technique used to determine if a patient has hearing loss in one of their ears. A tuning fork generates a tone that travels to the patient’s eardrum through the bones of the face. If the patient hears a softer sound or one that fades first in one ear or the other, it is an indication of hearing loss.
A quick and easy screening test, the Weber test is used to check for asymmetric hearing loss, rather than hearing loss that occurs equally in both ears. In this test, a tuning fork is struck and then placed along various points in the midline of the patient’s skull. If the test results are normal, the subject will hear the tuning fork sound equally in both ears, both in terms of sound duration and intensity.
If the patient hears the sound of the tuning fork differently between the two ears, it may be a sign of conductive or sensorineural hearing loss. In conductive hearing loss, there is a problem with the ear canal’s ability to conduct sound waves through the eardrum. The condition is usually caused by an obstruction, either from a foreign body, an ear infection, a tumor, or another cause.
Screening with the Weber test will show increased hearing in the ear with conductive hearing loss. While this may seem counterintuitive, the ear with conductive hearing loss is able to hear the tuning fork through the bones of the face because the sound doesn’t have to travel through the air in the ear canal. Sound waves that normally travel through the air along the ear canal are obstructed if you have a conductive hearing loss. Ambient sounds in the test room are muffled in the affected ear, which makes the sound waves traveling through test subject Weber’s facial bones in this ear seem more intense.
The other type of hearing loss, sensorineural hearing loss, will show the opposite results on a Weber test. In this type of hearing loss, there is a problem with the nerves in the ear, the parts of the ear responsible for hearing, or the center of the brain dedicated to hearing. The affected ear is unable to hear sound conducted through the bones better because the problem lies not in delivering sound waves to the eardrum, but rather in processing those sound waves once they arrive.
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