Bone-conduction audiometry bypasses outer and middle ear to directly assess inner ear function.

Evidence

Bone conduction is carried out in the same way as air conduction audiometry except that only frequencies from 500 Hz to 4 kHz are used due to the limitations of the bone-conduction transducers themselves. When a bone-conduction measurement is being made for a specific ear, it is essential that the other ear is masked using noise. — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 2351

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies what bone conduction audiometry measures and why other-ear masking is required.