Case scenario 1...a 30-something audiologist completed a routine diagnostic assessment of a 35-year-old patient referred by her primary-care physician for rather vague complaints of inconsistent difficulty hearing in certain settings. 

The audiologist performed tympanometry, pure-tone audiometry, and phonetically-balanced (PB) word recognition testing at a comfortable loudness level. The patient’s history was unremarkable for any obvious etiologies or risks for hearing loss, although she enjoyed listening to loud music.