Causes of Hearing Loss

Hearing loss is caused by many factors, most frequently from natural aging or exposure to loud noise.

The most common causes of hearing loss are:

• Aging
• Noise exposure
• Head trauma
• Virus or disease
• Genetics
• Ototoxicity

Things that can cause sensorineural hearing loss are:

• Aging
• Injury
• Excessive noise exposure
• Viral infections (such as measles or mumps)
• Shingles
• Ototoxic drugs (medications that damage hearing)
• Meningitis
• Diabetes
• Stroke
• High fever or elevated body temperature
• Ménière’s disease (a disorder of the inner ear that can affect hearing and balance)
• Acoustic tumors
• Heredity
• Obesity
• Smoking
• Hypertension

Things that can cause conductive hearing loss are:

• Infections of the ear canal or middle ear resulting in fluid or pus buildup
• Perforation or scarring of the eardrum
• Wax buildup
• Dislocation of the middle ear bones (ossicles)
• Foreign object in the ear canal
• Otosclerosis (an abnormal bone growth in the middle ear)
• Abnormal growths or tumours