Types of Hearing Loss

There’s more than one way hearing conditions can affect your life, and more than one way your hearing may degrade with age. Learning and knowing about the different types and symptoms of hearing loss can help make you more aware of you and your loved ones’ hearing abilities, and hopefully help you identify when hearing loss becomes an issue that needs intervention.

What is Sensorineural Hearing Loss?

A leading cause of hearing loss among healthy adults is sensorineural hearing loss. This type of condition arises when there’s an issue with the inner ear or with the way the brain receives and process the information coming from the inner ear. There are a variety of subtypes of sensorineural hearing loss, all of which are irreversible and permanent. Risk factors for developing sensorineural hearing loss include exposure to loud sounds, inner ear infection, and aging.

Sensorineural hearing loss is usually not addressed through surgery or other medical treatments, and so a hearing aid is often the recommended course of treatment.

Conductive Hearing Loss

Distinct from sensorineural, which affects the inner pathway of hearing, conductive hearing loss affects the middle or outer ear. Conductive hearing loss occurs when there’s a problem with how sounds are transmitted from the outer ear to the inner ear. This can include issues like a blocked ear canal (with earwax, fluid, or a foreign object), having a perforated eardrum, or another medical issue with the middle ear.

Conductive hearing loss, depending on its cause, often has medical treatments to solve the problem that’s causing the loss of hearing. It can be as simple as removing excess earwax blocking the eardrum, or by prescribing antibiotics to fight a middle ear infection.

Mixed Hearing Loss

A third category of hearing loss contains conditions that involve both sensorineural and conductive hearing loss. With these cases, both the inner and outer ear are experiencing some kind of degradation in hearing ability. Often the conductive hearing loss can be treated, but depending on the severity of the sensorineural condition, a hearing aid still may be required to obtain full hearing ability.

Types of Hearing Loss Symptoms

Although many people may consider the “normal” hearing loss experience to be gradual and in both ears, there’s many different experiences with hearing loss. For instance, not all hearing loss is bilateral, or occurring in both ears to the same degree. Unilateral hearing loss describes hearing loss in only one ear, while asymmetrical hearing loss describes different degrees of hearing loss in both ears.

People can lose different frequencies, or pitches, with their hearing loss. Frequently, hearing loss can start at the highest frequencies, making speech harder to understand with a lack of clarity in the consonants like “s” and “t.” Or it could affect low frequencies first, making low, deep sounds difficult to identify.

Hearing Solutions in Georgia

Because there are so many different types and symptoms of hearing loss, it requires accurate diagnosis and fine-tuned treatment to help you or your loved ones get back to the lifestyle they had prior to experiencing hearing loss. Georgia Hearing Aid Factory Outlet is here to help you get the high-quality, personalized hearing aid technology that fits your lifestyle and level of discretion. Call or visit a location today or find out more about our services by contacting us online. Our three locations are conveniently located near cities including Gainesville, Cartersville, Watkinsville, and more.