About Hearing

What is hearing loss?

Hearing loss typically means an individual cannot detect particular sounds compared to those without a hearing loss.

What are the early symptoms of hearing loss?

Missing everyday sounds like birds singing, difficulty following conversations in noisy situations, intolerance to loud sounds, finding yourself swapping the ear you hold the phone to in order to hear better, trouble hearing the T.V, radio, etc or keeping them at very high volume than normal, finding difficulty in understanding female voices, asking words to be repeated, etc. Although you may not experience all of the above symptoms, still if you do think you have a problem with some of them, you should get your hearing evaluated as soon as possible.

Why treat hearing loss?

When hearing loss occurs, reactions to the situation vary. Living with an unaddressed hearing loss can often lead to social isolation, we feel tired just trying to live our everyday day lives in the same way we once did when we could hear. Sometimes a loss of hearing can affect us both mentally and physically, if we isolate ourselves it could lead us to missing out on our activities and our interactions with our friends and family, we may feel lonely and left out. It is important to break this negative cycle and get your hearing assessed if you recognize this pattern. The earlier you begin to address your hearing loss, the better the chance of being able to retain many of the recognized "sound pictures" that our brain learns and stores from birth that help us quickly "get the picture" of a situation.

Types and causes of hearing loss:

There are many kinds of hearing loss, but most fall into two categories:
Sensorineural or Conductive.

Sensorineural hearing loss

This is the most common type of hearing loss. Sensorineural hearing loss is caused by damage to the tiny hair cells in the ear that help transmit sound to your brain. These can bend or break due to

• Exposure to very loud noises
• Genetic disposition
• Virus infections in the inner ear
• Certain medical treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation
• Head injury
• Age

The effects are almost always the same – it becomes harder to distinguish speech from noise, certain high-pitched sounds such as birdsong disappear altogether, people seem to be mumbling and you often have to ask them to repeat themselves.
Sensorineural hearing loss is permanent and can't be corrected medically, but a hearing aid can almost always help.

Conductive hearing loss

This is caused by any blockage that prevents sound reaching the inner ear. This might include:

• A build-up of earwax
• Fluid in the middle ear
• Unusual bone growth in the middle ear
• Middle ear infections
• Small holes in the eardrum

Conductive hearing loss is not necessarily permanent and can often be corrected medically or surgically.

Mixed hearing loss

It is possible that you may suffer from both types of hearing loss. This condition is called mixed hearing loss. Mixed hearing loss can be helped with surgery and a hearing aid.

Other factors associated with hearing loss

Discrimination loss:
Having a hearing loss does not simply mean the inability to hear loudly enough. Some people may also have great difficulties hearing within a specific and narrow frequency region. This can result in what is known as "discrimination loss"; one can hear speech but not understand it. Discrimination loss means that some speech sounds cannot be perceived by the ear and brain, making it difficult to distinguish between words and speech sounds - particularly those that are placed close to each other.
Your hearing care professional can measure speech recognition (in percent) to find out if you have a discrimination loss. The percentage of correctly identified test words is called the "speech recognition score". This represents the difference between a perfect score of 100 percent and the score actually obtained.

Tinnitus

Tinnitus is not a disease, but a symptom resulting from a range of underlying causes. When you suffer from tinnitus, you perceive certain sounds that are generated by the nervous system of the ear and brain. The cause of tinnitus is not fully known and at present no medical treatment exists that can cure it. The sounds are often characterized as hissing, ringing, buzzing, humming or the like.
A large variety of methods exist to deal with tinnitus, the most common being the use of hearing aids or various sound generators, various types of psychological approaches, therapies etc. Widex, a hearing aid manufacturer for example, offers hearing aids with a Zen system which can aid in the management of tinnitus.

Degrees of hearing loss

It's a fact that 1 out of 6 people over the age of 50 have trouble hearing and require some help with amplification of sounds. Hearing loss ranges from mild loss to moderate, severe and to profound.
This scale shows different levels of hearing loss (HL).
Normal hearing (<25dB HL)
Mild (26-40dB HL)
You have trouble hearing or understanding soft speech and whispers, or speech over background noise
Moderate (41-55 dB HL)
You have trouble hearing or understanding regular speech up close or regular speech in a quiet office environment
Moderately severe (56-70 dB HL)
You have trouble hearing or understanding everyday conversations or a telephone ringing
Severe (71-90 dB HL)
You can only hear loud sounds such as very loud speech, sirens or a door slamming
Profound (90+ dB HL)
You have trouble hearing sounds such as a motorbike or power tools
The degree of hearing loss is an important factor when choosing a hearing aid. Not all hearing aids will suit all degrees of hearing loss. Read more about this in the Hearing Aids section.

The audiogram

An audiogram is a visual representation of your hearing. During the hearing test, your hearing healthcare professional will plot the results into the audiogram.
This is a typical audiogram for a person with normal hearing:

And this is a typical audiogram for a person with age-related hearing loss:

Your hearing healthcare professional uses the data from your audiogram to determine if you might benefit from hearing instruments or if other medical treatment may be appropriate.