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Types of Hearing Loss
At Associates in ENT, we will tell you that hearing loss is caused by a medical problem in about 10% of cases. When one of our staff assesses your hearing loss, we will categorize your loss in relation to the three parts of the ear – inner, middle or outer.
Sensorineural is what we call a hearing loss that occurs when there is damage to your inner ear (cochlea), also called the hearing nerve. In most cases, this is the kind of hearing loss that is permanent and likely requires a hearing aid. The assessment for the hearing aid is done right in our office. The causes for this kind of hearing loss are varied, and could include family history, exposure to high noise levels or simply to aging.
Conductive hearing loss means that sound does not travel easily through your ear canal, to the eardrum or the middle ear. The good news is that we can frequently take care of this problem with either medication or a surgical procedure. But in the cases where surgery is not recommended, the doctor would advise the patient to consider use of a hearing aid.
Mixed hearing loss is exactly that. A mixed loss of both sensorineural and conductive hearing. Treatment of these cases will be based on the cause.
If you want to speak with one of our audiologists in our office about information on this website or to make an appointment for hearing services, please call 423-209-9111
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