Types of Hearing Loss

There are three main types of hearing loss depending on the area of the auditory pathway that has been affected. The three main types include;

• Sensori-neural Hearing Loss
• Conductive Hearing Loss
• Mixed Hearing Loss.

Sensori-neural hearing loss

This type of hearing loss can be caused by damage or a defect of the inner part of the ear. This may be due to natural wear and tear, noise exposure, congenital, genetic or viral.

A sensori-neural hearing loss is usually a permanent hearing loss and in most cases surgical or medical intervention cannot restore the hearing.

Conductive hearing loss

This type of hearing loss can be caused by damage or a defect of the outer or middle part of the ear. This may be due to a number of causes including malformation of the ear, wax, infection or middle ear effusion.

This type of hearing loss affects the transmission of the sound from the outer ear through the middle ear and in to inner ear. In most cases a conductive hearing loss can be successfully treated by an ENT consultant.

Mixed hearing loss

This type of hearing loss is a mixture of a sensori-neural hearing loss with an element of a conductive hearing loss.

In most cases, if ENT intervention is not possible, hearing aids can be fitted.