About Hearing Loss

Types of Hearing Loss and Possible Treatments

More than 31.5 million Americans have some degree of hearing loss1, and an estimated three out of every 1,000 children in the US may be born with hearing loss 2.

Whether it’s present at birth, or happens suddenly or gradually over time, hearing loss can leave you feeling isolated and separated from friends and family.

Many people can treat their hearing loss with traditional hearing aids, while other degrees of hearing loss may require more advanced treatments. Use the information below as a guide to help you determine which treatment may be the right one for you.

Conductive Hearing Loss

What’s WrongPotential CausesDegree and SymptomsTreatment Options
  • outer or middle ear structures such as eardrum or 3 middle ear bones, don’t function correctly
  • conditions associated with middle ear problems such as middle ear infections, or otosclerosis 
  • head injury that damages middle ear bones
  • birth defects

 
  • may range from mild to moderately-severe hearing loss
  • other voices may seem softer; your own voice may sound louder (like you are listening with your ears plugged)
  • often treated with medical intervention, such as Pressure Equalization (PE) tubes for middle ear infections
  • depending on degree of hearing loss, may be treated with hearing aids or Baha® System

Sensorineural Hearing Loss

What’s Wrong

Potential Causes

Degree and SymptomsTreatment Options
  • structures located in the inner ear (cochlea, auditory nerve system) don’t function correctly
  • heredity/genetics
  • noise induced hearing loss 
  • head injury
  • certain medications (damage inner ear hair cells)
  • Illness (measles, mumps, meningitis, menieres)
  • normal aging process
  • birth defects
  • tumors in the auditory nervous pathway

 
  • may range from mild to profound hearing loss
  • sounds are not only softer, but may seem muffled or distorted making it difficult to separate one sound from another (such as speech in a noisy setting)
  • depending on the degree of hearing loss, most often treated with hearing aids
  • severe-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss may be treated with Nucleus® 5 Cochlear Implant System
  • for profound sensorineural hearing loss in only one ear sometimes called single sided deafness may be treated with the Baha System.

Mixed Hearing Loss

What’s WrongPotential CausesDegree and SymptomsTreatment Options
  • combination of conductive and sensorineural hearing losses
  • a combination of outer and/or middle ear disorders and damage to the structures of the inner ear (cochlea) and/or auditory nerve pathway
  • may range from mild to profound degree of hearing loss
  • sounds may be both softer in volume and more difficult to understand (distorted)
  • depending on the degree of hearing loss, may be treated with hearing aids or Baha System.

Unilateral Profound Sensorineural Hearing Loss
(Single Sided Deafness, SSD)

What’s WrongPotential CausesDegree and SymptomsTreatment Options
  • a sensorineural hearing loss of profound degree (minimal or no hearing) in one ear, while the other  ear has good hearing.  If the good ear has hearing within the normal limits, the condition is called single sided deafness.
  • sudden deafness (rapid hearing loss of unknown cause)
  • birth defects
  • tumors of the hearing nerve
  • head injury
  • diseases

 

  • profound hearing loss/deafness in only one ear
  • impaired ability to tell the direction a sound is coming from
  • difficulty understanding speech on the deaf ear side, especially in a noisy room
  • depending on the degree of hearing loss, may be treated with CROS or BI-CROS hearing aid or the Baha System.