Severe hearing loss People with severe hearing loss have difficulty hearing in all situations. Speech may be heard only if the speaker is talking loudly or at close range. Symptoms of moderate hearing loss include problems hearing normal conversations and problems hearing consonants in words. Usually this results in problems with clarity since the brain is receiving some sounds but not all of the information. Symptoms of mild hearing loss include problems understanding someone farther away than a normal distance for conversation, or even up close if the background environment is noisy.
Weak voices are also difficult to understand for people with mild hearing losses.
A unilateral hearing loss is hearing loss in one ear. Hearing in one ear is normal but the other ear is hearing-impaired.