If you have a hearing issue, it might be a problem with your ear’s ability to conduct sound or your brain’s ability to translate signals or both depending on your exact symptoms.
Age, general wellness, brain function, and the genetic makeup of your ear all play a role in your ability to process sound. If you have the aggravating 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 types of hearing loss.
Conductive Hearing Loss
When we tug on our ears, continuously swallow, and say over and over to ourselves with increasing aggravation, “something’s in my ear,” we could be experiencing conductive hearing loss. The ear’s ability to conduct sound to the brain is decreased by issues to the middle and outer ear such as wax buildup, ear infections, eardrum damage, and buildup of fluid. You might still be capable of hearing some people with louder voices while only partly hearing people with lower voices depending on the severity of your hearing loss.
Sensorineural Hearing Loss
Unlike conductive hearing loss, which affects the middle and outer ear, Sensorineural hearing loss impacts the inner ear. Damage to the inner ear’s hair-like cells or the auditory nerve as well can block sound signals to the brain. Voices might sound slurred or muddy to you, and sounds can come across as either too low or too high. You’re suffering with high frequency hearing loss, if you have a hard time hearing women and children’s voices or can’t differentiate voices from the background noise.