A positive Rinne test means that the patient has normal hearing or sensorineural hearing loss. A negative Rinne test means that the patient has a conductive hearing loss. If the Rinne test is negative, the patient has a conductive hearing loss. The Rinne test is usually performed by an otolaryngologist in an outpatient clinic or in a hospital room, where a tuning fork of 256 Hz or 512 Hz is commonly used. If a sound is present, the patient will continue to listen and tell the doctor if the sound cannot be heard. The physician will then place the other end of the tuning fork on the mastoid behind the patient’s ear and ask the patient to listen again. If the sound is essentially inaudible, the patient will have a positive Rinne test, indicating either normal hearing or sensorineural hearing loss. If the patient can still hear the sound when the doctor places the tuning fork on the bone behind the patient’s ear, and can hear it for a longer period of time, it indicates that the patient has a hearing loss, and it is a conductive hearing loss. Therefore, the patient can use a simple Rinne test to initially determine the nature of the hearing impairment.