About 30 percent of people between 65 and 74 experience some difficulty in hearing. Conversations become more and more difficult to follow. Doorbells and telephones go unanswered. But hearing loss is not just an old person's condition. A recent nationwide study that tested 6,166 children aged 6 to 19 projected an estimate of seven million children with some hearing loss.
Many experts believe that estimate is too high and place the figure at less than half that.
There are two major types of hearing loss. Both types can occur in the same person. To understand them, it helps to understand how the ear works. Your outer ear gathers sound waves from the environment and funnels them down into the ear canal. At the end of the canal, the waves strike the eardrum, causing it to vibrate.