AUDIOLOGIST/RIE ROSSOUW/CENTURION GAUTENG

Hearing and Hearing Loss

 

 

 

 

Hearing Loss, Hearing Impairment, or Deafness, is a partial or total inability to hear.

 

 

The terms hearing impairment or hard of hearing are usually reserved for people who have relative insensitivity to sound in the speech frequencies. The severity of a hearing loss is categorized according to the increase in volume above the usual level necessary before the listener can detect it.

 

 

Deafness is defined as a degree of impairment such that a person is unable to understand speech even in the presence of amplification. In profound deafness, even the loudest sounds produced by an audiometer (an instrument used to measure hearing by producing pure tone sounds through a range of frequencies) may not be detected. In total deafness, no sounds at all, regardless of amplification or method of production, are heard.

 

 

In children hearing loss or deafness may affect the development of language and can cause work related difficulties for adults.