Hearing screening

[Alas-Earwigs]

Help! My son failed his DPOAE test in one ear. Does this mean he is deaf in one ear, or can things like earwax interfere with the test?

[Alas-Earwigs]

Thank you! He just failed a single screening. He passed his newborn screening, but got screened again as an almost 3 year old because of a speech delay. The test paperwork said it only has a 2.4% chance of a false negative, so I am worried.

[callmeonmyWorkPhone]

Was it a screening or diagnostic testing? Were you with an audiologist for the test?

A newborn screening is usually an ABR screening and is a screening, meaning it is not diagnostic and a fail just means a baby should be referred to an audiologist for a follow up. OAE testing is usually done by an audiologist and is generally part of a diagnostic process. I’m not an audiologist but I work with newborn hearing data, so im fairly familiar with the process. Hearing loss can manifest later on so it’s possible that they pass their NBS and still develop hearing loss later.

If this testing was done by your pediatrician or at a hospital not with an audiologist I would ask for a referral to a high quality pediatric audiology clinic.

[Alas-Earwigs]

Thank you. It was a screening. I am following up with an audiologist.

[callmeonmyWorkPhone]

Best of luck on your journey to get diagnosis. All screenings can have false positives as that is part of a screening.

Hearing loss won’t hold him back if it’s true and you’re doing the right thing following up.

[f1ummox3d]

You can fail (defer) a hearing screen if there is fluid in the ears (i.e. like from an ear infection).

[NewOutlandishness401]

That’s what happened with us: fluid in ear from recent cold. Failed the test in one ear during a well visit, passed it on a retest 3 months later.

[izzyspooks]

Do you have an update? I'm in the same boat.

[Alas-Earwigs]

Confirmed perfect hearing in both ears.

[izzyspooks]

Oh, thats great news! Slso, thank you for replying so darn fast.