About Hearing Loss

The most effective remedy for hearing loss is personal education. You need to learn all you can about your particular hearing loss, including:

• What is the type of hearing loss I have?
• What is the degree of loss in my left and right ears?
• How has my brain been affected, specifically in terms of auditory clarity?
• The 'time factor' - How waiting to pursue help for your hearing loss adversely effects your speech recognition.
• How do hearing aids bridge the gap?
• What can I do to improve my hearing?

 

The degree of hearing loss varies from person to person

Between the two extremes of hearing well and hearing nothing, there are many degrees of impairment. The terms used to describe the degree of hearing loss are mild, moderate, severe and profound. Most hearing losses are mild to moderate.

 

What does the degree of hearing loss mean?

• Mild hearing loss: unable to hear soft sounds, difficulty understanding speech clearly in noisy environments.
• Moderate hearing loss: unable to hear soft and moderately loud sounds, considerable difficulty understanding speech, particularly with background noise.
• Severe hearing loss: some loud sounds are audible but communication without a hearing instrument is impossible.
• Profound hearing loss: some extremely loud sounds are audible but communication without a hearing instrument is impossible.