What Your Audiogram Results Mean

How the audiogram chart is laid out

An audiogram is a graph printed on paper or shown on a screen after a hearing test. The horizontal axis represents pitch, measured in Hertz. Low numbers on the left are deep sounds like a bass drum or thunder. High numbers on the right are sharp sounds like birdsong or a smoke alarm.

The vertical axis measures loudness in decibels. The top of the chart is quiet, near zero decibels. The bottom is loud, often reaching 100 or 120 decibels. A mark placed high up means you heard a very soft sound at that pitch. A mark lower down means the sound had to be turned up before you noticed it.

Each ear gets its own line, usually drawn in different colours. Red marks the right ear and blue marks the left. Understanding this grid lets you read the rest of the chart without needing someone to translate it for you.

What the symbols and lines tell you

During the test, an audiologist plays tones through headphones and records the quietest level you respond to at each pitch. Those responses become the points joined by a line across the chart.

A flat line near the top means hearing is roughly the same at every pitch and sits within the normal range. Normal hearing is generally considered anything between zero and 25 decibels across the tested frequencies.

If the line dips toward the bottom, it shows a loss at those pitches. A dip on the right side means difficulty with high sounds. A dip on the left means low sounds are harder to catch. Sometimes the line slopes gradually from top left to bottom right, which is a common pattern in age-related hearing changes.

You might also see brackets or triangles. These record bone conduction results, where a small vibrator rests behind the ear to bypass the outer and middle ear. Comparing the headphone line to the bone conduction marks tells the audiologist whether a problem sits in the ear canal, the middle ear bones, or deeper inside.

Reading your results against daily sounds

Pitch and loudness mean little on their own. They matter because they map onto real noises. Vowels sit mostly in the low and middle pitches. Consonants like s, f, th and sh live in the higher frequencies. Someone whose audiogram dips on the right side will hear that a person is speaking but struggle to separate the words, especially in a noisy room.

Rustling leaves, a ticking clock and a dripping tap are all quiet, high-pitched sounds. If your threshold at those frequencies sits below 40 decibels, you may have stopped noticing them without realising why. Doorbells, telephones and children's voices occupy similar territory.

Loud, low sounds such as traffic rumble or a washing machine spin cycle sit on the left of the chart. Losing these is less common early on but happens with certain types of damage. Looking at where your line falls relative to these everyday markers makes the abstract numbers concrete. It shows exactly which conversations or household sounds have become harder to catch.

Degrees of hearing loss on the chart

Audiologists group thresholds into bands to describe how much hearing has shifted away from normal. Mild loss runs from 26 to 40 decibels. At this level, quiet speech or conversation in a busy pub becomes tiring. You might ask people to repeat themselves more than you used to.

Moderate loss covers 41 to 55 decibels. Following a television programme at a normal volume starts to feel difficult, and group conversations require heavy concentration. Moderately severe loss, between 56 and 70 decibels, means most speech must be raised before it registers clearly.

Severe loss spans 71 to 90 decibels. Only loud shouting or amplified sound reaches you. Profound loss is anything beyond 90 decibels, where even very loud noises may only register as vibrations rather than distinct sounds.

These labels are shorthand. Two people with the same degree of loss can experience it differently depending on which pitches are affected. That is why the shape of the line matters as much as the category written at the top of the report.

What happens after you read your audiogram

Receiving the chart is the start of a conversation, not the end of one. An audiologist uses the pattern to decide whether hearing aids would help, and if so, which frequencies need amplification. Modern devices can be tuned to boost only the exact pitches where your line dips, leaving the sounds you already hear well enough alone.

Sometimes the audiogram reveals something other than permanent hearing change. A gap between the headphone results and the bone conduction results can point to a blockage, fluid, or a problem with the tiny bones in the middle ear. Ear wax is a frequent cause of a temporary shift, and removal often restores the thresholds to where they were before.

If the results suggest you should return for another test, the audiologist will recommend a timeframe. Changes over months or years are tracked by comparing old charts to new ones. Keeping a copy of each result gives you a record of how your hearing behaves over time.