Deafness that develops during a person’s lifetime is usually called ‘acquired hearing loss’.

There are two types of acquired hearing loss:

• conductive deafness – sound has difficulty in passing through the outer or middle ear
• sensorineural deafness – the cause of deafness lies in the cochlea or hearing nerve

Acquired hearing loss can come about through a variety of causes. Certain types of illness and injuries can cause deafness, which is either temporary or permanent. This can happen at any age.

Exposure to loud noise is one of the most common risks to otherwise normal hearing. Permanent damage to the ears can be caused by as little as one minute’s exposure to loud music in a night club, for example!

Modern hearing aids can now successfully improve every degree of hearing loss from the mildly impaired ear to the profoundly deaf.

There are more than 30 different models are available from the most invisible CICs (completely in the canal) to the more conventional post-aural (behind-the-ear instrument). With up to 200,000 internal components, these hearing computers operate 40 million calculations per second helping you to better hearing.