
… Therefore, the affected ear is more sensitive to bone-conducted sound. The inner ear is more sensitive to sound via air conduction than bone conduction (in other words, air conduction is better than bone conduction). Why bone conduction is better than air conduction? With unilateral sensorineural loss, sound lateralizes to the normal or better-hearing side. With unilateral conductive loss, sound lateralizes toward affected ear.


In a normal test, there is no lateralization of sound. Weber test: Place the base of a struck tuning fork on the bridge of the forehead, nose, or teeth. Understanding this simple measure can help you quickly identify if your patient’s hearing loss is sensorineural, conductive, or a mixed hearing loss, which is a combination of conductive and sensorineural hearing loss. What is the relationship between air and bone conduction threshold results? … The air conduction results are more accurate, having greater reliability and validity, than bone conduction results in these cases of sensorineural hearing loss. In summary, bone conduction thresholds can be worse or better –by 10 dB and rarely 15 dB- than air conduction in the absence of conductive impairment.

Can bone conduction thresholds be worse than air conduction? In an affected patient, if the defective ear hears the Weber tuning fork louder, the finding indicates a conductive hearing loss in the defective ear. A normal Weber test has a patient reporting the sound heard equally in both sides. The patient is asked to report in which ear the sound is heard louder.
