Mild Hearing Loss – Severity Test and Denial

A person with severe or profound degrees of hearing loss can easily find help. Even if the person with serious hearing loss is not motivated to seek help, friends and family will exert pressure and so will the difficulty of hiding the disability and trying to live normally with such a secret.

In some ways, those with mild hearing loss are at a disadvantage. It is easy to blame others for not speaking clearly or turning the volume down too low. Denial is possible by avoiding difficult situations, causing problems in the classroom to cover the inability to follow the teacher’s speech and tell yourself that the problem is both minor and temporary.

Degrees and Denial
The severity of hearing loss is measured in the decibels (db) needed to make a sound loud enough to begin to be heard. There are four levels of hearing loss: profound hearing loss is anything over 85 db, severe hearing loss is between 66 and 85 db, moderate hearing loss is between 46 and 85 db and mild hearing loss is between 26 and 45 db. The level of hearing loss can vary between the two ears.

The damage caused by ignoring mild hearing loss depends on the age of the sufferer and the cause of the hearing loss. The most serious danger of ignoring mild hearing loss is the possibility that it is the symptom of a progressive problem. Many hearing disorders from infection to genetic illnesses to injury to tumor growth become worse over time. For many of these, early diagnoses can lead to treatment or therapy. Some disorders can develop into problems more dangerous than just hearing loss.

When a health problem seems minor, the sufferer may hesitate to complain about it. If the person with mild hearing loss is an adult, he or she may associate it with premature aging. A teen might want to avoid being seen as “different” especially when the problem seems manageable. If the mild hearing loss is present in only one ear, there may seem like no action is necessary.

Most people who feel this way would be surprised to find out that their friends and family are aware of the problem but don’t know how to begin a conversation about it. The result of hiding mild hearing loss is often isolation from normal activities and depression. The answer to mild hearing loss is to treat it as the health problem that it is. See a doctor.

Next article: Moderate Hearing Loss – Implications and Effects on Students

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