Before your appointment
There’s very little to do. It helps to jot down where you most notice difficulty, such as the TV, the phone or noisy restaurants, and to bring along anyone who’s commented on your hearing. If you wear hearing aids already, bring them too.
Step 1: A chat about your hearing
Every test starts with a conversation, not a machine. We’ll ask about your lifestyle, the situations you find hard, any ringing in the ears, noise exposure over the years, and your general health. This context shapes everything that follows.
Step 2: Looking in your ears
Using a small light called an otoscope, we’ll examine your ear canals and eardrums. This checks for anything simple, like a wax build-up, that could be affecting your hearing before we test it.
Step 3: The hearing test itself
The main test is pure-tone audiometry. Wearing headphones in a quiet room, you’ll hear a series of beeps at different pitches and volumes, and press a button each time you hear one, even faintly. We may also test how well you understand speech, and use other checks to see how your eardrum is responding. None of it is uncomfortable.
Step 4: Your results, explained
Once the test is done, we talk you through the results in plain English: which pitches you hear well, where there’s any loss, and what it means for everyday life.
Step 5: What happens next
If your hearing is healthy, we’ll simply suggest when to check again. If there’s a loss affecting you, we’ll discuss the options, with no pressure, including a free, no-obligation hearing aid trial so you can experience the difference before deciding anything.
Wondering whether the free test really is free? Our guide to whether a free hearing test is really free answers that. You can also book a hearing test at our Stockport clinic or ask about a home visit.
Ready to find out where you stand? Book a free hearing test at our Stockport clinic, or ask about a home visit.
Book a free hearing test
