OAE Hearing Screener

MS Pediatric Associates is excited to have an on-site otoacoustic emission (OAE) hearing screener. The hearing screener will allow us to perform objective hearing screens on a very wide age range of children. As you probably know, all children born in Mississippi have a hearing screen at birth. Periodic hearing screens in childhood are recommend by the American Academy of Pediatrics as well other organizations.

The OAE screener works by sensing sounds produced by the cochlea in the inner ear. A healthy ear will always emit these sounds. Unlike other hearing tests, the OAE screener does not depend upon the patient responding – raising a hand when they hear a beep, for instance – rather it consists of a microphone fitted to the ear canal that detects sound waves emitted by the inner ear. In this way, young children are able to have hearing screens, even before they can fully cooperate. Read further for a little more detail.

Basically, the ear consists of three parts, (1) the outer ear, (2) the middle ear, and (3) the inner ear. The outer ear is the part you can see and the ear canal. The middle ear is the ear drum and space behind the ear drum. The inner ear consists of the cochlea, which produces signals to the brain in response to sound waves. Sound enters the outer ear, travels down the ear canal and vibrates the ear drum. The ear drum is connected to the inner ear by three tiny, connected bones. When the ear drum vibrates, these bones move and transmit sound waves which are picked up by specialized cells in the cochlea. These specialized cells emit signals that are sent to the brain for interpretation. They also send sound waves back through the middle ear and down the ear canal. These “otoacoustic emissions” are what our hearing screener detects.

The vast majority of failed hearing screens will be for temporary problems, such as fluid behind the middle ear causing the ear drum to not vibrate properly or, less commonly, an obstruction in the ear canal, such as a large amount of wax or a foreign body. In cases when the hearing screener detects a potential problem and there is not an obvious physical impedance to proper hearing (such as an ear infection), we will refer the patient to an audiologist for further evaluation.

Originally posted: December 23, 2019