Severe Sensorineural
Loss at every pitch, from moderate at the lowest to severe from 3 kHz up. 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
- Severity
- Severe72 dB HL
- Most loss at
- 6 kHz · 85 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
- 65dB
- Moderately severe
- Right ear
- 65dB
- Moderately severe
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 | 55 | 55 |
| 500 | 60 | 60 |
| 1k | 65 | 65 |
| 2k | 70 | 70 |
| 3k | 75 | 75 |
| 4k | 80 | 80 |
| 6k | 85 | 85 |
| 8k | 85 | 85 |