Hearing tests

The cost of a private hearing test can vary depending on the provider and the type of testing that’s included.

At Cardiff Hearing, our hearing needs assessment is just £55, or free should you go on to purchase hearing aids from us. This is our most popular hearing test, and is suitable for anyone who is concerned that they may be experiencing some hearing loss, and would like to see if they could benefit from hearing aids.

If you’re looking a quick and easy check of your hearing and ear health, our hearing screen is just £30.

Finally, our hearing health consultation is £125 and includes a comprehensive hearing health report. This consultation is recommended for anyone who is concerned about their broader ear or hearing health, and seeking medical investigation (without the NHS waiting lists).

At Cardiff Hearing, we offer three different types of hearing assessment, to meet your individual requirements.

Hearing screen

If you are looking for advice and a quick and easy check of your hearing and ear health, our hearing screen can indicate whether further investigation, or our hearing needs assessment, is advised. We recommend a hearing screen every two years for anyone over 50, or an annual hearing check for anyone over 70.

Hearing needs assessment

If you are concerned about your hearing, and would like to see if you could benefit from hearing aids, this comprehensive hearing test will identify the extent and pattern of any hearing loss you may be experiencing. It will also, enable us to better understand how your hearing loss affects you, and how much you might benefit from hearing aids, so that we can recommend the best hearing solution for you.

Hearing health consultation

If you are seeking medical investigation for broader ear or hearing health concerns, you should consider our hearing health consultation.

If you are unsure as to which test you should book, you’re welcome to contact us to discuss your requirements with one of our hearing care specialists, without obligation.

Should we find that you have excess or impacted ear wax, which may be affecting your hearing, we may be able to complete ear wax removal, on any soft ear wax, during your hearing consultation.

Alternatively, we can advise about softening ear wax prior to ear wax removal, and book another appointment for you, to complete this and your hearing assessment.

If we identify any signs of pathology that we have concerns about, we will discuss this with you and refer you back to your GP for NHS referral.

Alternatively, we can quickly get you seen by our own private GPs or ENT consultants.

If we identify a hearing loss, your audiologist will work with you to tailor a hearing aid solution to maximise your hearing potential, given your hearing needs, lifestyle, and budget.

As an independent provider, we are not tied to offering hearing aids from any specific manufacturer. This means that we can always give you an honest and impartial recommendation on what we believe is the best hearing aid package for you.

As well as providing hearing aid solutions, we can also offer all-inclusive care plans to ensure that you’re getting the most out of your new hearing aids, as well as auditory brain training, which is a type of evidenced based gamified physiotherapy for the hearing centres of your brain.

It’s not recommended that you have a hearing test if you are suffering with a head cold.

A head cold can cause fluid to build up in the middle ear, creating some temporary hearing loss which could affect your hearing assessment findings.

During pure tone audiometry (PTA) testing, your audiologist will place earphones over your ears and ask you to press a button when you hear a sound.

This test measures the lower limits of your hearing at different pitches, and is used to understand the overall extent and pattern of any hearing loss you may be experiencing.

A diagnostic hearing test helps us to understand how well someone can hear specific pitches and also helps to figure out what type of hearing loss a person has (where the problem is in the auditory system), however; it doesn’t tell us how their brain processes complicated speech sounds, and that is what speech in noise testing is for.

A speech in noise test helps us to understand how a person’s brain receives and unpackages, and therefore processes, speech information when there is competing background noise (such as in a noisy cafe or restaurant).

Speech in noise tests can help us to determine whether you would find benefit from particular types of hearing aids, or if you have hearing aids and you don’t score very well, it can tell us whether you would benefit from something called auditory brain training, which is a type of evidenced based gamified physiotherapy for the hearing centres of your brain.

If your hearing is normal, but you don’t perform well in these tests, it can indicate a need for additional diagnostic testing of how you process speech information in noise.

Tympanometry is a test performed to determine how well the ear drums and the tiny bones (the ossicles) behind them are moving. It is a very quick and painless procedure, and may only be completed where it is clinically necessary.

During tympanometry, a small soft probe is inserted into the ear. A low tone is played and a change in air pressure is initiated. The sensation can sometimes feel like when your ears “pop” on a plane.

Depending on the graph produced, typanometry allows us to diagnose problems of the middle ear.