Often, hearing loss happens so gradually that the individual does not even realize it is happening.  For many people, it is friends, family, co-workers and peers who notice first that the person is having trouble hearing everything or understanding conversations correctly. 

Many cases of hearing loss are caused, at least in part, by noise.  Any noise that is loud enough or prolonged enough can damage a person’s hearing.  The louder the noise, the less time you can safely be exposed to it.  Sound is measured in decibels.  Normal conversation usually hits about 60 decibels.  Anything above 85 decibels is generally considered harmful.  A loud concert might hit 120-130 decibels, but even some more common sounds rise above what is safe.  Lawn mowers hit somewhere around 90 decibels, while a chainsaw can get to about 110.         

Hearing loss can also be caused by an ear that formed wrong while the fetus was developing, a head injury, non-cancerous growths in the ear canals, a severe infection such as meningitis, reactions to medications, fluid in the ears, and in rare cases ear infections.

The main types of hearing loss include:

Conductive – is a problem with the outer or middle ear.  This type of hearing loss is generally mild and temporary.

Sensory – is a problem of the inner ear, called the cochlea.  The cochlea is filled with liquid and little tiny hairs which vibrate and create the sensations that your brain recognizes as sound.  Sensory hearing loss happens when these tiny hairs are damaged.  This type of impairment can make a person’s hearing muffled, make it hard to hear certain sounds or cause complete deafness. Thus, when the cochlea is damaged, it is permanent.  

Neural – is when the brain has trouble receiving the messages sent by the ears (and then processing these into recognizable sounds).  This impairment is usually caused by damage to the nerves which carry the signals, not to the ear itself.