When a Weber test is carried out, sound localizes to the ear affected by the conductive loss. A Rinne test, in which air conduction is normally greater than bone conduction, is usually negative (abnormal), and shows higher greater bone conduction than air conduction.
Hearingloss can be due to the aging process, exposure to loud noise, certain medications, infections, head or ear trauma, congenital (birth or prenatal) or hereditary factors, diseases, as well as a number of other causes.
A common cause of conductivehearingloss (affecting the middle ear) is otosclerosis, which is a condition in which one of the small bones in the middle ear (the stapes in the ossicular chain) is affected with a bony growth.
Conductivelosses may result from earwax blocking the ear canal, fluid in the middle ear, middleear infection, obstructions in the ear canal, perforations (hole) in the eardrum membrane, or disease of any of the three middle ear bones.
Sensorineural hearingloss, commonly referred to as "nerve deafness," frequently occurs as a result of the aging process in the form of presbycusis, which is a gradual loss occurring in both ears.
In the case of unilateral sensorineural hearingloss, the tone is heard in the unaffected ear instead.
In conductivehearingloss, however, the bone-conduction stimulus is perceived as louder.
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