Otoacoustic Emission Test (OAE)

Otoacoustic Emission Test (OAE) is a very quick objective test to know whether the subject (i.e. the adult / child on whom the test is being conducted) has normal hearing or not. Like the other audiological tests it is a painless test. The test is very commonly used for testing newborn infants to check whether they have any hearing defect. If any deafness is detected then the degree of deafness has to be ascertained by other tests like- BERA / ASSR etc. as OAE cannot evaluate the hearing threshold and it can only tell us whether any deafness is at all present or if the hearing is normal. The OAE test is now mandatory in all newborns in most developed countries and is a must in all infants born out of at-risk-pregnancies.