What is Hearing Loss?

There are two types of hearing loss; conductive and sensorineural. A conductive hearing loss is caused when sound is blocked in the outer or middle ear.

Some causes of this are:

• excessive earwax
• damaged eardrum
• ear infection or fluid in the middle ear
• stiffness in the bones of the middle ear (otosclerosis)

Most often a conductive hearing loss can be medically treated with high success and hearing aids are often very helpful in situations where the condition cannot be treated medically.

A sensorineural hearing loss is where the hair cells in the inner ear or the hearing nerve is damaged and cannot send complete signals to the brain.

Some causes are:

• Aging
• Noise Exposure
• Hereditary factors

This type of hearing loss cannot be corrected with medicine or surgery and hearing aids can be very helpful.