If you ask me – Deafness is a pretty broad term and relates to short-term, long-term and intermittent deafness. It may also be total deafness or partial deafness, but many people will experience some form of hearing loss at some point of their lives.

There are a range of causes of deafness in human and these may include genetic disorders, toxins, disease, occupation-related, trauma, and allergies to medicines. To know what really are the causes of deafness, we need to know what are the types of deafness, as often they inter-related.

Types of deafness:
i) Conductive hearing loss
ii) Sensorineural hearing loss (neural hearing loss)
iii) A combination of both the above, mixed hearing loss.

Causes of Deafness:
a) Inherited or genetic hearing loss
b) Congenital
c) Deafness due to diseases and illnesses
d) Ototoxicity (ototoxic hearing loss)
e) Noise-Induced hearing loss
f) Age-Related hearing loss
g) Trauma

In Deaf culture, people prefer the terms “deaf” and “hard of hearing”.

Hearing loss is categorized by its severity and by the age of it happening. Not 2 people with the same degrees of hearing loss will experience it the same if it occurs early or late in life. Also, a loss can occur on only one side (unilateral hearing loss) or on both (bilateral hearing loss).

If the hearing loss is not too serious, the help of a hearing aid could be beneficial to the user.