About The Different Types of Hearing Loss

Introduction

Hearing loss is a condition that can affect anyone at any age. If you have hearing loss, your experiences may be different from those of people with normal hearing. The information in this article can help you better understand your own hearing and the ways it might affect your daily life.

Sensorineural hearing loss

Sensorineural hearing loss is the most frequently occurring type of hearing loss, accounting for up to 80% of all cases. It occurs when there’s damage to the inner or outer ear and/or damage to nerves between your ears (the cochlea) that send sound information to your brain. Sensorineural hearing loss can happen at any age and may be caused by genetic factors or environmental factors such as noise exposure or disease.

Sensorineural means “of, relating to, or involving a sensorium.” The term “sensorium” refers to the sensory organs in our bodies—our eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin—that receive information from our environment through chemical receptors that convert stimuli into electrical impulses. When one of these sensory organs becomes damaged over time due to normal wear-and-tear processes like aging or disease processes such as diabetes mellitus (diabetes), it may not function properly anymore because it has lost some sensitivity.* This condition is known colloquially as “going deaf.”

Conductive hearing loss

The first type of hearing loss is conductive. This means that the sound waves are blocked from reaching the inner ear. This can be caused by a blockage of your outer ear canal, which can be treated with a simple medical procedure such as cleaning out excess wax or plugging up the canal with an ear plug (if you’re not sure if this is what’s causing your problem, ask a professional).

Another cause could be buildup of wax in your inner ear or even perforation of your eardrum.

Mixed type

Mixed type is a combination of sensorineural and conductive hearing loss.
Sensorineural hearing loss is caused by damage to the inner ear, while conductive hearing loss is caused by damage to the outer or middle ear.

Auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder

Auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD) is a rare hearing disorder that can affect both ears, or one ear.

It is caused by damage to the auditory nerve, which carries sound signals from the ear to the brain. There may be other symptoms as well. These include:

A loss of balance and coordination when walking
Sensitivity to sounds and light (photophobia)
Difficulty understanding speech in noisy places

This article is about the different kinds of hearing loss. It does not discuss the causes or treatments for any form of hearing loss.

It is important to know the different kinds of hearing loss in order to understand the causes and treatments for each.

Conclusion

If you have any questions about this article, feel free to comment below. We’re happy to help!