Causes of Hearing impairment

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| I |

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| L |

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There are a great many causes of deafness and hearing impairment. The biggest single cause is age, called age-related hearing loss (presbyacusis). Most people begin to lose a small amount of their hearing between the ages of 30 and 40 years old. This hearing loss increases with age and by 80 years old most people experience a significant loss of hearing.

Age-related hearing loss occurs because the hair cells that line the sound pathway in the ear begin to die. Commonly, high frequency sounds such as female or childrenâ€™s voices become difficult to hear, and it is harder to hear consonants like the letters s, t, k, p, and f.

Another common cause of hearing loss is damage to the ear from loud noises (acoustic trauma ) , when part of the inner structure of the ear is injured. People who are exposed to loud noises over long periods are more likely to develop acoustic trauma. This may include people working close to loud music (such as night club staff), people who work with noisy equipment (such as pneumatic drills/compressed air hammers) and people who listen to high volume music through headphones.

After listening to very high noise levels your hearing will shift itâ€™s threshold, causing you to experience muffled hearing or ringing sounds in your ears. This is temporary and your usual hearing should return within a few hours. However, prolonged or intense exposure to very high noise levels can result in a permanent threshold shift or tinnitus.