A type of hearing test used to establish the cause of conductive deafness. During the test, a probe that contains a tone generator, a microphone, and an air pump is introduced into the outer-ear canal. The air pressure in the ear is varied and tones are played into it. The tone pattern reflected from the eardrum and received by the microphone sreveals whether the eardrum is moving normally. The test is particularly useful in children because it does not rely on a response from the person being tested.
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