If you have a hearing problem, it may be a problem with your ear’s ability to conduct sound or your brain’s ability to translate impulses or both depending on your specific symptoms.
Your ability to process sound is influenced by a number of variables like overall health, age, brain function, and genetics. If you have the frustrating experience of hearing a person’s voice but not processing or understanding what that person is saying you may be dealing with one or more of the following kinds of hearing loss.
Conductive Hearing Loss
When we tug on our ears, continuously swallow, and say again and again to ourselves with increasing aggravation, “There’s something in my ear,” we may be suffering from conductive hearing loss. The ear’s ability to conduct sound to the brain is lessened by issues to the middle and outer ear like wax buildup, ear infections, eardrum damage, and buildup of fluid. Depending on the severity of issues going on in your ear, you might be able to understand some people, with louder voices, versus hearing partial words from others speaking in normal or lower tones.
Sensorineural Hearing Loss
In contrast to conductive hearing loss, which affects the middle and outer ear, Sensorineural hearing loss impacts the inner ear. Sounds to the brain can be blocked if the auditory nerve or the hair like nerves are injured. Sounds can seem too loud or soft and voices can come across too muddy. You’re suffering with high frequency hearing loss, if you have difficulty hearing women and children’s voices or cannot separate voices from the background noise.