HEARING LOSS
How We Hear
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Hearing Loss Facts
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Hearing loss is the 3rd most common health problem in the United States.
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Hearing loss affects over 30 million Americans of all ages.
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More than half of all hearing-impaired people are under age 65.
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1 in 4 adults has a spouse or significant other with hearing loss
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Prolonged untreated hearing loss can lead to social isolation and depression.
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Hearing loss has been connected with dementia, diabetes and cardiovascular disorders.
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Noise-induced hearing loss is 100% preventable.
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* Facts sited from the American Academy of Audiology
Types of Hearing Loss
After a diagnostic hearing evaluation, your audiologist will be able to tell you what type of hearing loss you have:
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Conductive - When the outer or middle ear does not transmit sound normally
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​Examples: Ear canal impacted with wax, misshapen middle-ear bones​, ear drum perforation
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Sensorineural - When the inner ear organ (cochlea) and/or hearing nerve are impaired
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​Examples: Age-related hearing loss (presbycusis), noise-induced hearing loss
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Mixed - Hearing loss due to a combination of factors including conductive and sensorinerual components
How Bad Can It Get?
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Hearing loss configurations can include one or more levels of severity and can affect low and high pitches differently:
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Mild - Some difficulty with soft speech and distance speech. Some problems in background noise
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Moderate - Aware that people are speaking but will have difficulty understanding clarity of speech without visual cues.
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Severe - Conversational speech will be difficult to detect and even more difficult to understand. Significant impairment in a noisy environment.
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Profound - Even powerful hearing instruments may be of limited value, especially in background noise. May be a cochlear implant candidate based on aided test scores.
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