Weber test

In the Weber test of hearing, a tuning forkis struck and placed on the patient's forehead. The patient is asked to report in which earthe sound is heard louder.

A normal patient would report that the sound is heard equally in both ears. A patient with a conductive hearing losswould hear the sound louder in the affected ear. This is because the affected ear cannot hear ambient noises as well because of its conductive hearing loss and so is effectively masked to these noises and able to focus more on the sound conducted through the skull. You can replicate this yourself by plugging one ear with your finger (i.e. mimicking a conductive hearing loss) and performing the Weber test on yourself.

A patient with a sensorineural hearing losswould hear the sound louder in the normal ear, because the affected ear is less effective at picking up sound even if is transmitted directly by conduction into the cochlea.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weber+test Wikipedia article Weber test.