Glossary of Ear and Hearing Loss Terms

A hearing loss that is accompanied by additional physical characteristics such as blindness, physical deformities or mental retardation. It may also involve other organs.

A reaction where the total is more than the sum of the individual parts. For example, noise and certain drugs have a synergistic effect on hearing loss. Assume that a given amount of noise normally causes 1 unit of hearing loss. Also, assume that a given drug normally causes 2 units of hearing loss. Therefore, if you were exposed to both the noise and the drug, you would expect to have 3 units of hearing loss. However, in this hypothetical example, when tested, you find you have 7 units of hearing loss. The extra 4 units above what you would have expected by adding up the two figures, is caused by the synergistic action of noise and ototoxic drugs working together.

See Telecoil.

See Telecoil. This term was originally used in analog aids where there was a separate switch to turn on the telecoil.

Telecommunication Device for the Deaf. (See Teletype.)

A tiny coil of wire built into many hearing aids that allows the hearing aid to pick up the magnetic fields emitted by telephones, various assistive listening devices, or induction room loops. Sometimes referred to as “t-switch” or “t-coil.”

This term has fallen out of favor as the Deaf community never liked it. They use TTY, the abbreviation for teletype instead. (See Teletype.)

A telecommunication system that uses operators (called Communications Assistants [CA]) to facilitate telephone calls to or from people who are deaf or have limited hearing and also people with speech disabilities. This includes text to voice (TTY), Voice Carry Over (VCO), Captioned Telephone Service, Video Relay Service (VRS) and several other modes.

An optional accessory to the TEMPO cochlear implant by Med-El that allows the user to take advantage of two features–a built-in telecoil for accessing certain assistive listening devices, or an external microphone.

A text telephone that allows people with very limited hearing or no hearing to communicate over the phone. Rather than speaking into the phone and listening, a person types and reads. It uses Baudot code which has largely been rendered obsolete by the widespread use of digital technology.

A temporary (lasting less than a day) hearing loss due to exposure to loud sounds. Repeated exposure to sound loud enough to cause TTS can eventually lead to permanent hearing loss–a Permanent Threshold Shift.

See Teletype.

In audiometry, the softest sounds (usually pure tones or speech) a person can detect 50% of the time. The term is used for both speech and pure tone testing.

(TIN-ih-tus or tih-NIGH-tus) A sensation (subjective perception) of various (phantom) noises in the ears. Tinnitus is variously described as ringing, roaring, clicking, humming, buzzing, swishing, whooshing, clanging, shrieking and other similar sounds that seems to originate in your ears or head. It is not a disease, but a symptom of various abnormal underlying condition it he auditory system. It is often associated with hearing loss and exposure to loud noise.

For a more in-depth understanding of tinnitus, read this article.

A hearing aid-like device that produces white noise the purpose of which is to cover up the internal tinnitus sounds.

An effective treatment for tinnitus where the person with tinnitus undergoes a two-part treatment which includes wearing a white-noise generator set to a bit below the level of their tinnitus, and directive counseling where the person learns about tinnitus and how to break their emotional attachment to it.

The inner ear and the auditory area of the brain and central nervous system are arranged in pitch order, from low to high. Sounds of different pitches are processed by different hair cells in the cochlea, nerve fibers or brain synapses. The cochlear implant, therefore, is designed to present pitch information to the areas of the cochlea that are “tuned” to be sensitive to those pitches.

An approach to communicating with severely and profoundly hard of hearing people that includes simultaneous use of signing and speech (simultaneous communication or sim-com), sometimes supplemented with written information.

A short, usually high-pitched tinnitus lasting for a few seconds. Almost everyone hears this kind of tinnitus occasionally.

Occurs at the age of three when a child and family are no longer eligible for services under Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This is a collaborative process involving families, Part C and Part B programs and, as appropriate, other community-based preschool programs to ensure uninterrupted provision of appropriate services. Planning and decision-making must occur well in advance of the child’s third birthday.

See Telecommunications Relay Service.

See Tinnitus Retraining Therapy.

See Transient Spontaneous Tinnitus.

See Temporary Threshold Shift.

See Teletype.