About Hearing Loss - A guide to Hearing Loss

We tend to take our hearing for granted and assume that nothing will affect its normal function. This is true most of the time but our hearing is a complex and sensitive mechanism which can be affected by a whole range of things.

Our hearing starts to decline as we get older which is unfortunately, part of growing older. This isn’t a great deal we can do about this but the main thing is to accept that it does happen and to take steps to address it. But for most of our lives our hearing works well and doesn’t cause us any problems. If it does go wrong then there is usually a treatment available to deal with the problem and normal hearing is resumed. But there are people who are born with hearing problems such as deafness who never experience sound, music or all types of noise.

Hearing loss or deafness?

Are these two separate conditions or are they one and the same? The reason for this question is that many people are wary of causing offence by using the term ‘deafness’ and prefer to say that someone has a ‘severe hearing loss’ instead.

This is particularly noticeable in our politically correct society where every one of us is sensitive to each other’s needs and wary of upsetting each other. And because we are scared of repercussions if we use what someone considers an inappropriate term then we look for an alternative word instead. So the term ‘deafness’ is replaced with ‘hearing loss’.

One could argue that a mild or moderate form of hearing loss in which the sufferer is able to pick up a limited range of sounds is still defined as ‘hearing loss’; whereas someone who is unable to hear anything at all is deaf.

There is a spectrum when it comes to hearing loss which ranges from the very mild through to the very severe.

The arguments still continue.

If you have some form of hearing loss then your main concern will be that of what treatment is available. But before this can take place your GP or healthcare professional will need to determine the cause of your hearing loss.

What you will be interested in finding out more about is:

• The three types of hearing loss
• Symptoms of hearing loss
• Diagnosis of hearing loss is diagnosed (i.e. hearing tests)
• Hearing loss and your lifestyle
• Treatment for hearing loss

If you are a parent with a child suffering from hearing loss then there is a section dedicated to children’s ear health and problems.

Find out more in our children and hearing loss section.

We have briefly touched upon hearing loss and deafness but these are discussed as individual pages within this section.