Weber test

4.69  Weber test. Used to distinguish between conductive and sensorineural hearing losses. A vibrating tuning fork is placed on the subject’s forehead or vertex (midline) of the head and the subject is asked where in the head the tuning fork is heard (i.e., right ear, left ear, midline). If both ears have equal bone-conduction for the frequency of the tuning fork, the tone will be heard in the midline. If there is a sensorineural hearing loss in one ear and normal hearing in the other ear, the tone will lateralize to the normal ear. If there is a conductive hearing loss in one ear and normal hearing in the other ear, the sound will lateralize to the ear with the conductive hearing loss. A subject with two abnormal ears may produce abnormal results.