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Center for Hearing Loss Help

Help for your hearing loss, tinnitus and other ear conditions

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What Is A Reverse-Slope Hearing Loss?

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A lady asked:

What is a reverse-slope hearing loss? I have never heard of this terminology for hearing loss, Would you please enlighten me?

Sure thing. Hearing losses go by some strange names such as cookie-bite loss, ski-slope loss, reverse-slope loss, etc. These names come from the shape of the hearing loss when it is plotted on an audiogram.

The most common is the ski-slope hearing loss. The ski-slope loss is where you have reasonably good hearing in the low frequencies (shown on the left side of the audiogram), but you don’t hear much at all in the high frequencies (shown on the right side of the audiogram). The audiogram thus looks much like a ski hill sloping down to the right.

A reverse slope loss, as its name implies, is just the opposite. Hearing loss is mostly in the low frequencies, with little or no loss in the high frequencies. Thus a reverse-slope loss slopes up to the right. Reverse-slope losses–especially the extreme version I have, are very rare.

If you want to learn more about the strange names associated with the various kinds of hearing losses, and see the shapes they form on audiograms, read my short, illustrated article “Kinds of Hearing Losses.”

If you want to learn more about the rare reverse-slope hearing loss and just how weird hearing is with this kind of loss, read my article entitled “The Bizarre World of Extreme Reverse-Slope (or Low Frequency) Hearing Loss.

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Hearing Loss Research & Resources

Free Visor Cards

Download your free Visor Cards for hard of hearing or deaf people here.

Loop Systems

Loop your home or meeting room. Discover how you can hear wonderfully clear sound again when listening to the TV/radio, etc, or when listening to a speaker at a meeting.

Loop systems are one of the best-kept secrets in town. To learn more about Loop Systems and what they can do for you, click here.

Take Control of Your Tinnitus—Here’s How

If your ears ring, buzz, chirp, hiss, click or roar, you know just how annoying tinnitus can be. You do not have to put up with this racket for the rest of your life. This book teaches you many things you can do to help bring your tinnitus under your control so it no longer bothers you.

Learn More | Add to Cart—Printed | Add to Cart—eBook

Sounds Now Too Loud for You?

Hypersensitive to Sound front coverIf some (or all) normal sounds seem so loud they “blow the top of your head off”, or make you wince or jump, or cause you headaches or ear pain, or affect your balance, or result in fear or annoyance of sounds so you feel you have to avoid these sounds, this book is for you!

Learn More | Add to Cart—Printed | Add to Cart—eBook

Hearing Phantom Sounds?

When hard of hearing people begin hearing phantom voices or music, they immediately worry they are going crazy. It never crosses their minds that they are sane and are just experiencing Musical Ear syndrome.

To learn more about the strange phantom sounds of Musical Ear syndrome and what you can do about them, click here to read a comprehensive article about Musical Ear Syndrome.

Or get the book—Learn More | Add to Cart—Printed | Add to Cart—eBook

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Center for Hearing Loss Help

Neil G. Bauman, Ph.D.

1013 Ridgeway Drive, Lynden,
WA 98264-1057 USA

Email: neil@hearinglosshelp.com

Phone: 360-778-1266 (M-F 9:00 AM-5:00 PM PST)

© 2025 Center for Hearing Loss Help – Help for your hearing loss, tinnitus and other ear conditions

"The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life [which also includes perfect hearing] through Jesus Christ our Lord." [Romans 6:23]

"But know this, in the last days perilous times will come" [2 Timothy 3:1]. "For there will be famines, pestilences, and [severe] earthquakes in various places" [Matthew 24:7], "distress of nations, the sea and the waves roaring"—tsunamis, hurricanes—Luke 21:25, but this is good news if you have put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, for "when these things begin to happen, lift up your heads [and rejoice] because your redemption draws near" [Luke 21:28].