During the Rinne's test, what does the therapist compare?

During Rinne's test, the therapist compares bone conduction and air conduction of sound. This test is used to assess hearing ability and to help differentiate between conductive and sensorineural hearing loss.

In this test, a tuning fork is struck and placed on the mastoid bone (to test bone conduction) until the sound is no longer heard. Then, the therapist moves the tuning fork to the front of the ear (to test air conduction) and checks how long the sound can be heard in this position. A normal finding is that air conduction is better than bone conduction, which typically manifests as the patient hearing the sound longer when it is in front of the ear than when it is on the bone. If bone conduction is greater than air conduction, it suggests some form of conductive hearing loss. Hence, the comparison between these two types of conduction is crucial for understanding the nature of a patient's hearing loss.