Hearing and Hearing Loss

Hearing is the detection and interpretation of sounds. It works like this:

If everything is working right, the air around a person is where sound vibrations start. They might come from a car engine, a person talking, a TV set, or from anything that makes sound. The sound-maker sets the air to vibrating. When the vibrations in the air reach a person's ear, they enter the ear canal and travel to the eardrum, and make the eardrum vibrate. On the other side of the eardrum, the inside, the eardrum vibrates the hammer, the hammer hits against the anvil, and the anvil pushes the stirrup against the cochlea. The cochlea changes the motion from the vibrations into electrical signals, which the auditory nerve then transmits to the brain.

Deafness
When you see the word deafness, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? You might think of someone who hears nothing at all. But there are different degrees of deafness.

	A profound hearing loss is one where all hearing is lost. A hearing aid cannot help a profoundly deaf person.
	A severe hearing loss would mean that a hearing aid is a must. With or without the hearing aid, you might use sign language and/or lip-read.
	A moderate hearing loss would mean that you would have some problems, such as: It's hard to hear when you are talking with others, especially when they're whispering. Talking with others in a crowded room or with background noise is difficult. People with accents are hard to understand. Talking on the phone is sometimes difficult. Depending on the amount of loss, you might or might not need a hearing aid.
	If you had slight or mild hearing loss, you wouldn't notice it too much. You might not need a hearing aid, but your hearing might need to be checked every year to see if it's getting worse.