Tuning forks

A tuning fork is an effective tool clinicians can utilise to test a patient’s hearing. Because hearing uses mechanical components of the ossicles and neural components of the cochlea, hearing loss can be either conductive (a complication with the physical aspect of hearing), or sensorineural (a problem with the neural component of hearing).

A physician can utilise the simple physics of a tuning fork to determine whether hearing loss is conductive or sensorineural using the Weber and Rinne tests. The Weber test involves placing a tuning fork’s base in the centre of a patient’s forehead. If a patient has unilateral conductive hearing loss, the sound from the tuning fork will seem louder in the affected ear. This is because the sound waves travel through bone and bypass the conduction of sound through air.

The Rinne test takes advantage of this as well; instead of the forehead, a tuning fork is held on the mastoid just behind the ear. Once a patient is no longer able to hear it via bone conduction, the clinician then removes the fork from the bone and holds the tuning fork closer to their ear. Because hearing is more sensitive to air conduction, a patient with normal hearing should still be able to hear the tuning fork.

In addition to hearing loss, the tuning fork can be used to evaluate a wide range of other health problems. A clinician can use tuning forks to identify whether a bone is fractured. This is done by simply striking a tuning fork and placing the vibrating fork close to the affected area.