| If you are hard of hearing, one of the most difficult | | | | simply ignoring them. |
| problems which you may experience is comprehension | | | | The reason that these problems arise with nerve |
| of speech. You may know that someone is speaking | | | | deafness is related to the fact that there are two |
| to you, but many times, if you have nerve deafness, | | | | parts to our hearing mechanism. One is whether or not |
| you miss a lot of the words in the course of the | | | | we are able to hear the sound while the second and |
| conversation. This is made much worse whenever | | | | equally important part is, can we process the sound |
| there is any background noise such as in a crowded | | | | we hear in order to understand what we hear. In |
| room with a lot of people talking in the background. | | | | mechanical forms of hearing loss (conductive hearing |
| You may notice that you hear better and understand | | | | loss), such as occur when you have a hole in your |
| better when you can look directly at the person with | | | | eardrum or wax blocking your ear canal, your ability to |
| whom you are speaking. | | | | understand is normal and if the sound is turned up loud |
| What may be even more distressing is when you turn | | | | enough, you understand normally. However, with nerve |
| up the radio or TV to try to hear better, it may make | | | | deafness and impairment of comprehension, even |
| matters even worse because the level of distortion | | | | when the sound is turned up loud, understanding is not |
| becomes worse. You may have noticed that if you | | | | usually improved and may be worse. |
| have nerve deafness (sensori-neural deafness), you | | | | An additional problem which is frequently present in |
| have more trouble with women's voices. This is in to a | | | | people with nerve deafness is the presence of tinnitus, |
| large extent, due to the fact that women's voices are | | | | a ringing, roaring, buzzing or similar sound which you |
| higher pitched than men's voices. Children's voices | | | | perceive in your ears or head but which other people |
| represent a similar problem relative to pitch but in | | | | do not hear. This also interferes with hearing and |
| addition, they tend to talk rapidly, and are constantly | | | | understanding speech. |
| moving about. Also, especially with smaller children, | | | | The cause of nerve deafness is related to the |
| they may not always enunciate clearly since they are | | | | deterioration of the hearing nerve cells. Two common |
| just learning language. You may notice that when | | | | causes are noise exposure and the aging process |
| watching a movie or the TV that if the person | | | | itself. There are many other causes, but the scope of |
| speaking is on screen and looking at the camera, that | | | | this article does not permit discussion of any in detail. |
| you have better understanding that if the speaker is | | | | There may be other associated symptoms such as |
| off screen. With nerve deafness, you may have | | | | dizziness. |
| noticed that in large rooms with poor acoustics, that | | | | If you are experiencing some or all of the above |
| you have more difficulty. | | | | problems then you should see your ENT doctor for |
| As a result of all of being hard of hearing, you may | | | | evaluation, hearing tests and any other needed tests |
| find that you would rather stay at home than go out | | | | to determine the cause of your difficulty. In some |
| and expose yourself to all of these problems. Also, if | | | | situations, the hard of hearing problem is indicative of |
| you have nerve deafness and trouble understanding | | | | more serious conditions in addition to the nerve |
| speech, your family may be less understanding than | | | | deafness. Help is available. |
| strangers. They think that you are not listening or | | | | |