Tympanometry tests the movement of the eardrum when an ear infection or other middle ear problem is suspected. A doctor places the tip of a hand-held tool into the child's ear. The tool changes the air pressure inside the ear and produces a clear tone. Then, the tool measures how the eardrum responds to the pressure and the sound. The results of this test are used to help figure out what is going on in the ear. Why It Is Done The results of tympanometry can tell doctors whether there is fluid behind the eardrum or whether an ear tube is blocked. The test can also discover whether there is a hole in the eardrum.
Hearing Loss In Children -
Hearing loss often is discovered when a child is being evaluated for difficulty with school performance or behavior. At First Care Medical Clinic, it is important to identify hearing loss as early as possible since even slight hearing loss in one ear can have an impact on a child's speech and language development. Our Providers will ask about your child's medical history and will examine him or her, ask about ear pain, any discharge from the ear and fever. Our provider will then examine the ears with an OTOSCOPE — an instrument with a lighted, cone-shaped end piece for looking in the ear canal at the eardrum. The doctor will look for Redness and Bulging of the Eardrum and will check to see if it moves normally by blowing a puff of air through the otoscope. (Eardrums do not move if they are too stiff or if there is fluid behind them.) Our Providers may also do a hearing test called an audiogram to check for hearing problems or a test called a TYMPANOGRAM that measures how the eardrum moves.
