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Studies have shown that there are over 9 million people in the UK alone with deafness or some degree of hearing loss and over 28 million in the United States and a staggering 360 million people throughout the entire world suffer from deafness or are hard of hearing.

Hearing loss or deafness can be categorised into two main types, Conductive hearing loss and sensorineural hearing loss.

Conductive Hearing Loss

This type of hearing loss is caused by the interference of transmission of sound from the outer to the inner ear. Possible cause of this may include:

Middle ear infections, collection of fluid in the ear more commonly known as “glue ear” which occurs mostly in children, blockage of the outer ear by wax, damage to the ear drum caused by injury or infection, otosclerosis which is when the middle ear becomes immobile due to growth of the surrounding bone and rheumatoid arthritis.

A lot of the everyday things that most of us take for granted are a problem for the person that is hard of hearing, simple things for enjoyment such as watching the TV may be a problem, the sound may have to be at an unbearable volume for them to hear comfortably depending on the amount of hearing loss they suffer.

For useful things like not being able to clearly hear the alarm clock ring off can also become a problem.

More important things such as hearing a smoke alarm should there be a fire or hearing the door bell signifying a visitor.

There are however several useful products available to make living easier if you are hard of hearing or deaf.

Hearing loss is a common disorder in older people; it is thought that about 35% of people 65 to 75 years of age suffer from hearing loss to some degree and half of all people over the age of 75 will suffer from some form of hearing loss.

It is when older people suffer from a gradual loss of hearing that the hearing loss is referred to as Presbycusis, and the loss usually associated with Presbycusis is the range of higher pitched sounds.

When a person suffers from this type of hearing loss they find it extremely difficult to hear the ringing of a telephone but they can hear low rumbling sounds such as a truck going down the street clearly.

Here we have compiled a dossier of facts and figures concerning deafness and hearing loss which you may find helpful.

• About 500 million people throughout the world suffer from some kind of hearing loss.
• 1 in 10 people suffer from hearing loss to the degree that they would benefit from using a hearing aid.
• It is estimated that 6.5% of the total working population suffer from hearing loss.
• A recent survey showed that the percentage of people with hearing loss that actually used a hearing aid is declining .
• Studies have shown that in places of work where ear plugs should be worn a large number of people do not wear them.
• Recent research proved that 13% of the Danish population have some form of hearing loss.

There has always been a certain stigma surrounding deaf people in society maybe more in the past than now, many people and some still do even today think that just because the person is deaf or hard of hearing then that makes them slow.

This is not true the only disability a deaf or hard of hearing person has is not being able to hear you speak there is nothing wrong with the persons brain; deaf people have normal intelligence.

Yet very often the hard of hearing and deaf people are judged, take for example two people go for the same job, they both have excellent credentials and exam results, both with similar personalities the only difference between them is one of them is profoundly deaf.

For every 1000 children that are born 1 will be born with what is classed as significant hearing loss and will have a serious affect on there education, reading and learning to speak and another one in 1500 will develop hearing loss related problems sometime during there childhood.

The term hearing loss varies is degrees and is termed either mild, moderate, severe or profound, the term “deaf” is used for those with profound hearing loss.

Factor’s Causing Deafness or Hearing Loss in Children

There are several contributing factors in a child being born deaf or with hearing loss in any degree, there are certain illnesses when contracted by the mother during early pregnancy such as rubella or more commonly known as German measles.

Certain medications and exposure to x-rays are common causes. If the mother is experiencing a difficult labour and intervention isn’t given made quickly enough then the baby can suffer from a lack of oxygen which can also cause hearing loss, also if the baby is born prematurely.

There are a number of factors that can contribute towards a person going deaf or becoming hard of hearing, age is one of the most common and some degree of deafness or loss of hearing will occur in over 50% of all people over the age of 60.

Growing older

Studies have shown that most people will lose there hearing to some degree as we age and this loss will worsen the older we get, nothing can be done to cure loss of hearing in old age but modern technology can play a big part in making life easier for older people in the form of hearing aids.

There are several things that you can look out for and are able to tell if your hearing may be declining; the most common ones are:

• You find yourself frequently asking a person to repeat themselves.
• You turn the volume up on the TV or radio frequently.
• You have trouble hearing the person on the other end of the telephone during a conversation.
• Think back, when was the last time you heard birds singing, running water or the humming sound that the refrigerator makes.
• You often think people are mumbling when you have a conversation.
• You have to listen really hard to what the person is saying to you.
• Sometimes you get accused of not paying attention to what is said to you.
• You have trouble following a conversation when there are two or more people involved in it.
• You have trouble hearing the conversation when there is general background noise.
• You have more trouble understanding what women have said to you than men.
• You have trouble hearing what is being said at lectures, plays e.t.c.
• You hear ringing, hissing or a sound like the ocean in your ears.
• Some sounds sound too loud to you.

How many time have each of us gone into our teenagers bedroom and asked them to turn the music down or been sat behind someone on a bus that was wearing headphones plugged into some type of musical device and said to ourselves “he/she will turn themselves deaf with that racket”.

We have all probably at some time or other encountered the situation but it is actually something that shouldn’t be taken lightly and loss of hearing or deafness can in fact be contributed to prolonged use of loud music.

Hearing loss associated with this is called acoustic trauma and gradual hearing loss over a prolonged period of exposure to loud music can be one of the causes, the hearing loss may be temporary or become permanent.