Does a normal audiogram mean my hearing is fine?

It means you detected soft tones at the tested pitches. Some people with a normal audiogram still find it hard to follow speech in noise. If that is your experience, tell the professional; speech tests can look at it.

Why are there two lines?

Usually one line is the right ear and one the left. If bone conduction was tested, there are extra marks for it as well.

Can I compare this year's audiogram with an older one?

Yes, as a rough guide. Small differences of a few decibels can come from the test itself. Ask the professional whether a change is meaningful.

How to Read an Audiogram: Your Hearing Test Chart, Explained

The two axes: pitch and loudness

The horizontal axis is frequency, measured in hertz (Hz). It is heard as pitch. Tests usually cover tones from about 125 or 250 Hz on the left to 8000 Hz on the right.

The vertical axis is loudness, measured in decibels (dB). Soft sounds are at the top and loud sounds at the bottom. The scale starts around 0 dB, which is not silence: it is the reference level for the softest sounds typical young ears can hear. Decibels and frequency explains both units.

What the symbols mean

A red O usually marks the right ear and a blue X the left ear. These are results for sound heard through headphones or earphones, called air conduction.

If your test also measured bone conduction, those results use other symbols, often brackets or arrowheads. The legend printed on your audiogram says which symbol is which. Air and bone conduction explains the difference.

What the shape of the lines can show

A line that slopes down to the right means higher pitches had to be louder before you heard them. This pattern is common with age-related hearing loss and after loud noise exposure. Many consonants, such as s, f and th, are high-pitched, which is why speech can sound clear enough in volume but hard to make out.

A gap between the air-conduction and bone-conduction marks can point to sound being held back in the outer or middle ear. Types of hearing loss explains what that means.

Two ears that look different are worth discussing with the professional. When one ear hears less explains why.

Mild, moderate, severe: the degree words

Results are often described as normal, mild, moderate, severe or profound. The exact decibel ranges behind these words differ between classification systems, so the same result can be labelled slightly differently in two reports. Ask which system was used if the label matters to you.

The degree word is a summary. Two people with the same label can have different shapes and different experiences in daily life.

What an audiogram does not show

An audiogram measures the softest tones you can detect. It does not measure how well you understand speech, especially in noise; speech tests do that. Hearing but not understanding looks at that gap.

It also does not show tinnitus, listening fatigue or how hearing affects your day. Tell the professional about these, even if the chart looks good.

Questions to ask about your audiogram

Which ear is which, and which symbols show bone conduction?
Which pitches are affected most, and which everyday sounds sit there?
Which classification was used for the degree?
Were speech tests done, and what did they show?
Is anything here a reason for a medical check?
When should the test be repeated?

Key takeaways

Left to right is pitch, low to high; top to bottom is loudness, soft to loud.
Each mark is the softest sound heard at that pitch; lower marks mean more hearing loss at that pitch.
O is usually the right ear and X the left; the legend on the chart is the final word.
Degree words depend on the classification used.
An audiogram does not measure understanding speech in noise; speech tests do.

This information is general and does not replace an examination by a qualified professional.