Moderate Sensorineural
A sloping loss: near normal at the lowest pitches, and moderate to moderately severe from about 2 kHz up. Everyday conversation takes real concentration, and noisy places make it much harder to follow what people are saying. Captions, clear speech, and a good view of the speaker’s face make a big difference.
Summary
- Severity
- Moderate44 dB HL
- Most loss at
- 4 kHz · 60 dB
Degree of the worse ear, averaged over all eight frequencies, on the scale used by U.S. audiologists (ASHA)
Pure-tone average (PTA)
- Left ear
- 35dB
- Mild
- Right ear
- 35dB
- Mild
What’s a pure-tone average?
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 normal 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.
Thresholds by frequency
| Hz | L | R |
|---|---|---|
| 250 | 15 | 15 |
| 500 | 20 | 20 |
| 1k | 35 | 35 |
| 2k | 50 | 50 |
| 3k | 55 | 55 |
| 4k | 60 | 60 |
| 6k | 60 | 60 |
| 8k | 55 | 55 |