Weber test
PURPOSE: determination of a conductive vs. a sensorineural hearing loss
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strike tuning fork and place base in the centre of the forehead or the top of the head
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ask if the tone is louder in the left ear, the right ear or equally loud in both ears
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due to the sound localization process,
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in a patient with a unilateral conductive hearing loss, the sound will be louder in the affected ear (airborne sounds mask bone conduction in the normal ear; conductive loss prevents masking in affected ear è sound is perceived to be louder in affected ear)
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in a patient with unilateral sensorineural hearing loss, the sound is louder in the normal ear (no signal is transduced by the cochlea on the affected side, therefore the sound is louder on the normal side and is perceived to be coming from that side)
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in a normal person or a person with symmetrical hearing loss, it is equally loud in both ears
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