If you have a hearing issue, it may be a problem with your ear’s ability to conduct sound or your brain’s ability to translate impulses or both depending on your exact symptoms.

Your ability to process sound is governed by a number of variables like overall health, age, brain function, and genetics. If you have the frustrating experience being able to hear a person’s voice but not processing or understanding what that person is saying you might be experiencing one or more of the following kinds of hearing loss.

Conductive Hearing Loss

You could be suffering from conductive hearing loss if you have to repeatedly swallow and yank on your ears while saying with growing irritation “There’s something in my ear”. The ear’s ability to conduct sound to the brain is diminished by problems to the middle and outer ear like wax buildup, ear infections, eardrum damage, and buildup of fluid. Depending on the seriousness of problems going on in your ear, you may be able to make out some individuals, with louder voices, versus hearing partial words from others talking in normal or lower tones.

Sensorineural Hearing Loss

In contrast to conductive hearing loss, which affects the middle and outer ear, Sensorineural hearing loss impacts the inner ear. Injury to the inner ear’s hair-like cells or the auditory nerve as well can block sound signals to the brain. Voices might sound slurred or unclean to you, and sounds can sound as either too low or too high. If you cannot differentiate voices from background noise or have difficulty hearing women and children’s voices in particular, then you might be suffering from high-frequency hearing loss.