SOE-see-oh-ah-KOO-sis  (Sometimes spelled sociocusis.) Hearing loss produced by exposure to non-occupational loud noise—basically cumulative hearing loss due to everyday living in our noisy world.

Often, but wrongly referred to as tinnitus. Somatosounds are natural sounds your body makes that arise in vascular, muscular, skeletal, or respiratory structures, or in the temporomandibular joint. A very common somatosound is hearing your heartbeat–what is commonly called pulsatile tinnitus–but it is not technically tinnitus at all. Other somatosounds include hearing your blood pulsing […]

A channel through the earmold where sound is received from the hearing aid and delivered to the ear canal.

An FM system that has a small loudspeaker near the listener to amplify the speaker’s voice. The speaker wears a wireless FM microphone. Sound field systems used in classrooms may have several loudspeakers focused on different parts of the classroom so all students can hear better.

The lowest hearing level in decibels at which a person can detect the presence of speech. Also knows as the speech detection threshold (SDT).

See Speech Awareness Threshold.