If you have a hearing issue, it might be something wrong in your ear’s ability to conduct sound or your brain’s ability to process impulses or both depending on your exact symptoms.
Brain function, age, general health, and the genetic makeup of your ear all contribute to your ability to process sound. If you have the frustrating experience of hearing a person’s voice but not being able to process or understand what that person is saying you might be dealing with one or more of the following kinds of hearing loss.
Conductive Hearing Loss
You could be suffering from conductive hearing loss if you have to repeatedly swallow and yank on your ears while saying with increasing irritation “There’s something in my ear”. The ear’s ability to conduct sound to the brain is lessened by issues to the middle and outer ear such as wax buildup, ear infections, eardrum damage, and buildup of fluid. Depending on the severity of problems going on in your ear, you could be able to make out some individuals, with louder voices, versus hearing partial words from others talking in normal or lower tones.
Sensorineural Hearing Loss
Where conductive hearing loss can be brought on by outer- and middle-ear issues, Sensorineural hearing loss impacts the inner ear. Injury to the inner ear’s hair-like cells or the auditory nerve as well can stop sound signals from going to the brain. Voices could sound slurred or muddy to you, and sounds can sound as either too low or too high. If you can’t differentiate voices from background noise or have a hard time hearing women and children’s voices particularly, then you might be experiencing high-frequency hearing loss.