An estimated 28 million people suffer from hearing loss. There is not an exact statistic since many people do not realize or refuse to admit that their hearing is impaired.

What are some symptoms of hearing loss?

• Others complain you have the television too loud
• You have problems hearing birds or wind
• You have difficulty hearing female voices or children
• You have difficulty hearing in groups
• You find yourself confusing words or making silly mistakes misunderstanding conversations
• Other people, or family members, think you have a hearing loss

What are some causes of hearing loss?

• Noise exposure (military, hunting, music, industrial, racing, power saws, lawn mowers)
• Heredity
• Certain chemotherapy and radiation treatments
• Certain heavy-duty antibiotics
• Head trauma
• Wax
• Ear infections
• Viral infections

One of the first signs of hearing loss is the inability to understand words in difficult listening environments. A difficult listening environment might be a noisy restaurant, church or theatre. Many times, it may be too embarrassing or inappropriate to ask the person to repeat the words or sounds.

Hearing is measured in decibels. Normal hearing is between 0 and 25 decibels. A person with normal hearing can easily communicate at distances of up to 40 feet. Some can communicate well at up to 100 feet. Others have trouble hearing the person next to them and many times believe that everyone around them mumbles when they speak.

A difficult listening environment is not the only place where hearing can be a problem. For many, hearing loss is a problem at home too. Have you ever missed a visitor or phone call because you didn't hear the doorbell or telephone ring?

Hearing loss can happen at any age. It’s frustrating and dramatically affects your quality of life. At Hear Direct we understand these things and want to help you find the best solution for your hearing needs.

The first step to improving your communication is to have your hearing tested by a hearing healthcare professional at Hear Direct. Following the hearing evaluation the professional will counsel you, explaining your test results and introducing you to our product line.

Hear Direct is open Monday thru Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. No appointment is necessary.

How is hearing loss classified?

Your ability to hear is as unique as your fingerprint. No two people have exactly the same hearing impairment.

Hearing loss is classified by several factors: degree, understanding ability, location of loss along the speech frequencies, and type of loss.

Degree: Degree refers to the amount/severity of the hearing loss. Hearing loss is categorized as mild (slight difficulty hearing in daily environment), moderate (difficult to hear most sounds in your daily environment), severe (extremely difficult to hear all sounds in daily life) or profound (deaf).<3p>

Understanding Ability: Hearing and understanding are not the same thing. You may be able to hear speech sounds but not understand what is being said. Sometimes understanding ability is impaired as a result of a hearing loss. This is usually measured by a percentage of your understanding random words during a hearing evaluation.

Location of Loss Along Speech Frequencies: Usually hearing loss does not affect all speech frequencies the same. For example, loud sounds damage hearing ability in the high frequencies. This creates a problem hearing sounds that are high in pitch (i.e.. female or children's voices, birds, consonant sounds like "s" and "t"). Some other hearing losses, from head trauma or ear infections, can affect the low pitches (i.e.. male voices, loudness, vowel sounds).

Type of Loss: There are three types of hearing loss.

• Conductive Hearing Loss: Conductive hearing loss results from a problem with the conduction of sound from the outer ear (part that you see) to the inner ear (where the nerve is located). This can result from wax buildup, ear infections, trauma to the ear, or any other problem with the eardrum or bones that conduct sound through the middle ear. Those with this type of loss have a problem with volume rather than understanding ability.
• Sensorineural Hearing Loss: Sensorineural hearing loss involves some sort of deterioration of the inner ear or the hearing nerve. The aging process, noise-exposure, some cancer treatments, illness, and other degenerative processes could cause this loss. This type of hearing loss sometimes impairs understanding ability and causes those with the loss to be sensitive to loud sounds.
• Mixed Hearing Loss: Mixed hearing losses contain some conductive elements and some sensorineural elements.