Sudden, Temporary, Mild to Severe Hearing Loss

While the sense of hearing gets weaker with age, the degrees of hearing loss can be controlled by following certain preventive measures. The preventive measures to be adopted depend on the kind of hearing loss one suffers from. The degrees of hearing loss can be categorized into five broad categories.

• Definition of Hearing Loss

• Sudden Deafness
• Deafness: Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss

Temporary hearing loss is caused by various factors. The most common cause is exposure to extra loud sounds like blasts, loud music or sound of some machinery. It can also be caused due to trauma or shock. Typically, the affected person will regain hearing sense in due time even without any treatment. The time required to regain the hearing ranges from a few minutes to a few days. Though temporary hearing loss is not a worrisome situation, the causes should be avoided because they can lead to permanent hearing loss.

• Temporary Hearing Loss
• Noise-Induced Hearing Loss
• Hearing Loss in Musicians

A person whose hearing sense has been lost by 26 to 40 dB HL is considered to have mild hearing loss. Though mild hearing loss does not impair a person enough to affect his or her day to day life, it can reduce his/her efficiency. For instance, the learning pace of children may be affected. Likewise, communication will be less efficient among adults. No medical treatment is required for mild hearing loss but it’s wise to have a health check up to see if the hearing loss is induced by some other medical condition which could be treated.

• Minimal Hearing Loss
• What Does it Mean?

A person whose hearing sense has been lost by 71 to 90 dB HL is considered to have severe hearing loss or acute hearing loss. People who suffer from severe hearing loss cannot hear mild sounds heard by normal persons. They can hear better by using hearing aids. Otherwise, they depend on lip movement to decipher someone’s conversation. They can also communicate using sign language.

• Hearing Loss - Signs and Symptoms
• Hearing Loss Association of America
• Hearing Aids Primer

A person whose hearing sense has been lost by 90 dB or higher is considered to have profound hearing loss. Profound hearing loss is a critical case where an affected person needs to depend totally on sign language or lip movement for conversation. They can hear mildly by using some kind of hearing aids.

• Profound Hearing Loss & Hydrocodone
• American Sign Language Browser
• Independent Living for the Deaf  

• Type, Degree, and Configuration of Hearing Loss
• Hearing Loss
• What's Hearing Loss?
• American Hearing Research Foundation