Medical and Social Context of Partial Hearing Loss

Unlike complete, or profound, hearing loss, people suffering from partial hearing loss can hear speech and other sounds at varying loudness levels. They would hear sounds less than 90 dB. The quality of their hearing, however, is different from to day to day and even from situation to situation. To some extent, people affected with partial hearing loss rely on lip-reading and nonverbal cues for grasping the meaning of a conversation. Sometimes, they may even not be aware of this need.

Degrees of Partial Hearing Loss

Unlike complete hearing loss, partial hearing loss occurs in varying degrees like mild, moderate, severe, and profound. In each degree, the patient cannot hear a sound below a certain level of loudness. People suffering from mild hearing loss have difficulty hearing sounds with a loudness of 25 to 40dB. Above this they can hear clearly. They experience some difficulty in grabbing the meaning of conversations, especially when there is noise in the surrounding. If someone is unable to hear sounds with loudness of 40 to 70 dB, he/she is said to be having moderate hearing loss. These people need a hearing aid to follow ordinary conversation, even when not in a noisy setting.

Severe Hearing Loss

In case of severe hearing loss, people will not hear sounds less loud than 70 to 90 dB. While they need to use hearing aids, they still would rely heavily on nonverbal cues, especially lip-reading. Some of them may use sign language for understanding and conveying meaningful expressions.

Profound Hearing Loss

While some classify profound hearing loss as the same as deafness, it is not so. At this stage of impairment, people are unable to hear sounds below the loudness of 90 dB. They mostly rely on lip-reading and sign language for meaningful interaction. Hearing aids are not very effective in these cases but the more advanced surgical implants in the cochlea produce significant ease in hearing.

Partial Hearing Loss and Social Interaction

Partial hearing loss is a confounding situation for people who suffer from it because the hearing of the person varies from one situation to another. Therefore, the person experiencing the hearing loss may be able to communicate well with some people on one occasion and poorly with others on a different occasion. Thus social interaction of the person with hearing loss may be the cause of unsatisfactory social relationships. To avoid this unwanted distortion in social interaction, the person with hearing problem should convey in advance that he/she is not able to understand meanings as they are in all situations. This will prepare the speaker/listener for any lapses in the hearing during a conversation.