Severe Sensorineural
Severe loss across all frequencies. Most speech is hard to hear without hearing aids, and even with them, following conversation can take a lot of work. People at this level often use some mix of cochlear implants, captions, lipreading, and sign language.
Summary
- Pure-tone average (PTA) · Left ear
- 65 dB
- Pure-tone average (PTA) · Right ear
- 65 dB
- Most loss at
- 6 kHz · 85 dB
- Severity
- Severe
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 | 55 | 55 |
| 500 | 60 | 60 |
| 1k | 65 | 65 |
| 2k | 70 | 70 |
| 3k | 75 | 75 |
| 4k | 80 | 80 |
| 6k | 85 | 85 |
| 8k | 85 | 85 |