Cookie Bite (Mid-Low)
A U-shaped dip in the middle of the hearing range, named for what it looks like on an audiogram. The affected frequencies overlap with the core of the human voice, so speech can sound hollow or muffled even when the volume seems fine. This pattern is often inherited and present from birth or childhood.
Summary
- Pure-tone average (PTA) · Left ear
- 35 dB
- Pure-tone average (PTA) · Right ear
- 35 dB
- Most loss at
- 2 kHz · 55 dB
- Severity
- Mild
Pure-tone average is the quietest tone each ear can just hear, averaged across three pitches central to speech (500 Hz, 1 kHz, and 2 kHz). It’s the single number U.S. audiologists use to sum up an audiogram. 15 dB or lower is typical hearing, and every 10 dB higher means sounds need to be about twice as loud to be heard. Internationally, the World Health Organization averages four pitches, adding 4 kHz, so where high pitches have more loss its number comes out higher.
Degree of the worse ear, averaged over all eight frequencies, on the scale used by U.S. audiologists (ASHA)
Thresholds by frequency
| Hz | L | R |
|---|---|---|
| 250 | 5 | 5 |
| 500 | 10 | 10 |
| 1k | 40 | 40 |
| 2k | 55 | 55 |
| 3k | 50 | 50 |
| 4k | 35 | 35 |
| 6k | 15 | 15 |
| 8k | 5 | 5 |