• Middle ear infection
  • Exposure to loud or constant noise
  • Heredity
  • Illness or birth defects
  • The natural aging process
  • Traumatic injury
  • Ototoxic medications
  • Tumors

If a hearing loss is suspected, an appointment with a hearing health care professional should by made for the purposes of testing and evaluation.

Hearing problems are grouped according to the location of the damage or defect.

Conductive

Sound waves are blocked by damage or obstruction in the outer or middle ear. Voices and sounds may sound faint, distorted or both. Approximately 20 percent of patients with complaints of hearing loss suffer from this type loss. Conductive losses may be treatable either medically or surgically.

Sensori-neural

Also known as nerve-type hearing loss, this type of gradually-diminished hearing is commonly associated with the aging process. The inner ear or auditory nerve cannot deliver signals to the brain correctly, due to damage or improper formation. This will cause sounds to be distorted. Patients may complain that people seem to mumble or that they hear but do not understand. Approximately 80 percent of adult patients with complaints of hearing loss suffer from this type of loss. Sensori-neural losses may be helped by an audiologist with proper assessment and fitting of hearing aids.

Combined or Mixed

Conductive and Sensori-neural together.

  • Difficulty hearing in public gatherings -concert halls, theaters, houses of worship - where sound sources are far from the listener.
  • Difficulty understanding conversation within a group of people.
  • Adults avoiding group meetings, social occasions, or family gatherings where listening may be difficult or where one may feel embarrassed about misunderstanding what is being said.
  • Asking others to repeat themselves.
  • Turning the head to one side while listening to sounds or speakers.
  • Misinterpreting a spoken message.
  • Your hearing frustrates you when you converse with family and friends.
  • Your hearing problem embarrasses you when you meet strangers.
  • You have difficulty hearing the television, radio or telephone at a normal level.
  • Your hearing causes you to have arguments with family members.
  • You feel that hearing difficulties hinder your social life.
  • It is difficult for you to hear or understand when someone speaks to you in a whisper.
  • You feel that you are impaired by your hearing problem.

Step One

Make sure your hearing test is conducted by a clinical audiologist.

Step Two

Make sure your test results are interpreted by a clinical audiologist.

Step Three

Make sure your prescription for amplification is written by a clinical audiologist.

  • If a hearing loss is suspected, an appointment with a hearing health care professional should be made for the purposes of testing and evaluation. These services are available from the following professionals: Audiologists, ENT  Specialists, General Physicians, Hearing Instrument Practitioners.
  • After the age of 50, a regular hearing test should be considered as important as one's yearly physical checkup. Many individuals remind themselves to have these important checkups by scheduling them around their birthday, an easy way to remember.

  • Testing is painless, comfortable and safe. Basically, it consists of answering questions about your hearing health, recognizing everyday words at different volume levels, and identifying different sounds.

  • Your ability to hear each tone, or frequency, produces a unique hearing pattern which is recorded on an audiogram.

  • The hearing health care professional then uses the audiogram to determine the type and severity of the hearing loss. These tests should help determine whether a hearing loss is best treated medically, or with hearing aids.