Between “hearing well” and “hearing nothing” lies a wide range of different degrees of hearing loss. Experts distinguish between mild, moderate, severe and profound hearing loss. Most cases of hearing loss are categorized as mild or moderate.
|
Mild hearing loss
Soft noises are not heard. Understanding speech is difficult in a loud environment. |
The sound of speech
Human speech consists of vowels and consonants at different loudness and frequency levels. They are recorded on the audiogram as a so-called “speech banana”. It is an easy way to check whether the entire spectrum of speech is still audible and how a person’s hearing changes with time. |
|
Moderate hearing loss
Soft and moderately loud noises are not heard. Understanding speech becomes very difficult if background noise is present. |
|
|
Severe hearing loss
Conversations have to be conducted loudly. Group conversations are possible only with a lot of effort. |
|
|
Profound hearing loss
Some very loud noises are heard. Without a hearing aid, communication is no longer possible even with intense effort |