Background: There are clinical implications associated with knowing when the occlusion effect (OE) must be accounted for during bone conduction (BC) testing because spurious results can occur when errors are made in this regard. The amount of OE produced when insert earphones (IEs) are used varies in the literature; thus, further investigation is warranted.
Purpose: The purpose of this project was to determine the OE during BC threshold measurements under the following occluding conditions used clinically: when using partial insertion (PI) versus full insertion (FI) depth and when occluding one versus both ears.