Frequently Asked Questions

What is the ringing in my head/ears?

The ringing sensation that can be detected in your head, or individual ears, is called tinnitus. This ringing is usually an indication of some damage to your auditory system (especially noise damage). It can be constant or periodic and on one specific side or in the middle of your head. There is no magic cure for tinnitus, but there are methods that can help you live with it. Sometimes hearing aids help by bringing more sound to the brain, thus distracting attention from the ringing. If you have ringing consistently on one side, you should consult your doctor about it.

What are some causes of hearing loss?

  • Ageing
  • Noise exposure (music, industrial, lawn mowers, guns etc)
  • Genetic/ Inherited
  • Some chemotherapy and radiation treatments
  • Some strong antibiotics
  • Head trauma
  • Wax
  • Ear infections
  • Viral infections

How is hearing loss classified?

Your ability to hear is as unique as your fingerprint. No two people have exactly the same hearing impairment.

Hearing loss is classified by several factors: degree, understanding ability, location of loss along the speech frequencies, and type of loss.

Degree: Degree refers to the amount/severity of the hearing loss. Hearing loss is ranked mild (slight difficulty hearing in daily environment), moderate (difficult to hear most sounds in your daily environment), severe (extremely difficult to hear all sounds in daily life) or profound (deaf).

Understanding Ability: Hearing and understanding are different. You may be able to hear sounds but not understand what is being said. Your ability to understand speech is often impaired as a result of a hearing loss. This is can be assessed by your audiologist.

Location of Loss Along Speech Frequencies: Usually hearing loss does not affect all speech frequencies the same. For example, loud sounds damage hearing ability in the high frequencies. This creates a problem hearing sounds that are high in pitch (i.e. female or children’s voices, birds, consonant sounds like ’s’ and ‘t’). Some other hearing losses, from head trauma or ear infections, can affect the low pitches (i.e. male voices, loudness, vowel sounds).

Type of Loss: There are three types of hearing loss.

Conductive Hearing Loss: Conductive hearing loss results from a problem with the conduction of sound from the outer ear (part that you see) to the inner ear (where the nerve is located). This can result from wax buildup, ear infections, trauma to the ear, or any other problem with the eardrum or bones that conduct sound through the middle ear. Those with this type of loss have a problem with volume rather than understanding ability.

Sensorineural Hearing Loss: Sensorineural hearing loss involves some sort of deterioration of the inner ear or the hearing nerve. The ageing process, noise-exposure, some cancer treatments, illness, and other degenerative processes could cause this loss. This type of hearing loss impairs your  speech understanding ability and can cause a sensitivity to loud sounds.

Mixed Hearing Loss: Mixed hearing losses contain some conductive elements and some sensorineural elements.

Why do I only have difficulty hearing in crowds?

If you have difficulty hearing in crowds, you could have a high-frequency hearing loss. With this type of loss, you can hear well in one-on-one situations and even in small groups. However when you are surrounded by distracting speech and noise in a crowded environment, the background noise masks out the clarity of the speech. Your normal low-frequency hearing picks up the low-pitched noise at a normal hearing level, while you miss some of the high-frequency sounds, which are important for speech understanding and clarity. This hearing loss is not as noticeable when speaking to someone in a quite environment.

Why does it sound like everybody mumbles?

The most common type of hearing loss is that caused by the ageing process. Here, the low frequencies are often normal or only mildly affected while the high frequencies have usually deteriorated significantly. These sounds are the part of our hearing that give us the clarity of speech and speech understanding. This means that you can hear the volume of speech, the loud vowels and the loud, low frequency consonants such as ‘m’, ‘n’, ‘b’, ‘d’ or ‘g’ but are missing the soft, sharp consonants such as ‘k’, ‘p’, ‘t’, ‘f’, ’s’ or ‘th’. This means that you know people are speaking to you, and you can hear them speaking, but you cannot understand what they are saying. For example, you would not be able to differentiate between similar words such as ‘kip’, ‘pip’, ‘tip’ and ’sip’. You are likely to hear only ‘ip’, ‘ip’, ‘ip’, ‘ip’. People with a high-frequency hearing loss will often report that everybody mumbles.

Why do I have a difficult time hearing female voices when I can hear male voices easily?

You may have a high-frequency hearing loss. Female voices, children’s voices, and even a majority of speech understanding lies in the high frequencies. If you have a high-frequency hearing loss you probably have a hard time hearing things, such as female voices. You may hear the low frequency sounds normally but miss the high frequency sounds.

Do I need two hearing instruments?

If you have a hearing loss in both ears it is recommended that you wear a hearing aid in both ears, because two ears hear better than one.

Why are two ears better than one?

  • With equal inputs coming from both sides to the brain, it is easier to understand conversation.
  • Two ears are required to determine the direction, or source of sound.
  • Having an input from two ears automatically boosts the loudness of the signal.
  • Two ears hear better in noise than one because the brain essentially puts one ear in charge of focusing on the speech and the other ear in charge of filtering out the noise. With only one ear hearing properly it is overwhelmed with both the speech and the noise and cannot seperate them.

What is the “best” hearing instrument on the market?

There is not one “best” hearing instrument on the market. A hearing instrument that works well for one individual may not produce the same results for someone else since everyone has different listening needs. Each major manufacturer makes a product that is highly comparable to other manufacturer’s product.

My friend did not have a positive experience with hearing aids, will the same happen to me?

Everyone’s hearing loss is unique. Although someone you know may have had a negative experience with hearing instruments, you may not have the same experience. Hearing aids and technology vary as does the person’s level of motivation and persistance with this new experience. Do not base your hearing upon someone else’s experiences.

Do hearing instruments need repair?

Yes, occasionally hearing instruments need repair. Hearing aids are exposed to a damp, waxy environment on a daily basis. Because of this, and normal wear and tear, you can expect to face a repair or two during the life span of your hearing instrument. A repair comes with a repair warranty. If your hearing instrument is being repaired more than you are able to use it, then it may be time to consider new instruments.

What is vertigo?

Some describe their imbalance problem by this word. It comes from the Latin verb “to turn.” True vertigo is frequently due to an inner ear problem.


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