A hearing evaluation is designed to answer practical questions: How well do you hear different sounds? How clearly do you understand speech? Are the results consistent with the difficulties you notice every day? The appointment also gives you time to discuss goals, medical history, noise exposure, and possible next steps.
At Merit Hearing, a typical comprehensive evaluation takes approximately 45–60 minutes. The exact tests depend on your history, symptoms, age, and clinical needs.
Before the appointment
Bring your insurance cards, a medication list, and any prior hearing-test records. Also bring hearing aids or other listening devices you currently use, even if they were purchased elsewhere.
Think about two or three situations where communication is most difficult—for example, family dinner, work meetings, phone calls, television, restaurants, or places of worship. Specific examples help the audiologist connect test results to your daily needs.
If another clinic completed a hearing test within the last six months, Merit Hearing may be able to use it without repeating the entire evaluation. The audiologist may still recommend additional testing when clinically appropriate or when you want a new baseline.
Health and hearing history
The appointment usually begins with questions about your hearing, tinnitus, dizziness, ear problems, noise exposure, family history, and communication goals. Mention sudden changes, ear pain or drainage, differences between ears, prior ear surgery, and medications that may affect hearing.
Your answers help determine which tests are appropriate and whether medical referral should be considered.
Looking in the ears
An audiologist commonly performs otoscopy—a visual inspection of the outer ear and ear canal—before testing. This can identify concerns such as excessive earwax, a foreign object, drainage, or other findings that may affect testing or require referral.
Listening for tones
Pure-tone testing measures the softest sounds you can detect at different pitches. You may wear headphones or insert earphones and respond whenever you hear a tone, even when it is very soft.
The results are recorded on an audiogram. They help describe the degree and pattern of hearing sensitivity in each ear.
Speech testing
Speech testing evaluates how softly you can recognize speech and how clearly you understand words at an appropriate listening level. This information can explain why two people with similar tone-test results may experience different communication challenges.
Middle-ear testing when appropriate
Tympanometry or other acoustic-immittance testing may be used to assess movement of the eardrum and middle-ear function. Not every patient needs every test; the audiologist selects a test battery based on the clinical picture.
Reviewing the results
The audiologist should explain the audiogram in plain language and relate it to the situations you described. Possible recommendations include monitoring, hearing protection, communication strategies, medical referral, assistive listening technology, or hearing aids.
If hearing aids are appropriate, the discussion may cover styles, features, Bluetooth connectivity, professional fitting, follow-up care, budget, and insurance benefits. You do not have to choose a product before understanding the results and options.
Transparent pricing and next steps
Merit Hearing publishes hearing aid and service prices online. Prescription hearing aids currently start at $815 for one device or $1,435 for a pair; exact cost varies by brand, model, technology level, and service plan.
Review current hearing aid prices before your visit. If you have insurance, Merit Hearing can help check benefits, although coverage and participation vary by plan and clinic location.
Schedule at a local Merit Hearing clinic
Merit Hearing provides hearing care in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Florida. Choose the nearest clinic or book a hearing evaluation online.
Clinical oversight provided by Andrew Keiner, AuD. Approved July 16, 2026.
Sources
- ASHA: Hearing loss in adults
- ASHA: Adult hearing screening
- NIDCD: Audiologist
- Merit Hearing: Getting started
- Merit Hearing pricing
The exact evaluation varies by patient. Seek prompt medical attention for sudden hearing loss, ear pain or drainage, severe dizziness, or other urgent symptoms.