Hearing Loss
Common signs of hearing Loss!
- Frequently having to ask people to repeat themselves
- Having trouble hearing in noisy or busy places
- Misunderstanding conversation
- Finding that people are mumbling
- Increasing the volume on the television
- Avoiding social situations
Between hearing well and hearing nothing, there is a wide range of hearing loss. Experts distinguish between mild, moderate, severe and profound hearing loss. Most cases of hearing loss are mild or moderate. Hearing loss is measured in units called dBHL, dB stands for Decibels and HL stands for the Hearing Level.
A hearing test finds out the softest sounds a person can hear (their threshold of hearing), across a range of sound pitches (frequencies), and an average of these gives the level of hearing loss. The greater the threshold in dBHL the greater the loss.
Causes of Hearing Loss
The majority of hearing loss is damage to the inner ear and termed 'sensorineural' hearing loss. Most common causes are the aging process and/or long term exposure to loud noise. Other causes might be; drugs side effects (ototoxic), viral infections, hypertension and diabetes, to name but a few. Sensorineural loss is normally irreversible.
Other causes may not be permanent and might be treatable. These are termed 'conductive losses'. Examples of conductive loss are; excessive wax, infection of the middle ear, ear drum perforation, and malfunction of the middle ear bones. There can of course be a combination of both sensorineural and conductive loss and this would be termed a mixed loss.
Your hearing test will determine the type of hearing loss that you have.
