Question:medium

When a patient fails to understand normal speech but can understand shouted or amplified speech, the hearing loss is termed?

Show Hint

Threshold of 70 to 95 dB in the better ear; normal speech missed but loud speech heard.
Updated On: Jun 24, 2026
  • Mild hearing loss
  • Moderate hearing loss
  • Severe hearing loss
  • Profound hearing loss
Show Solution

The Correct Option is C

Solution and Explanation

Step 1: The key clue is that conversational speech is lost but loud or amplified speech is still perceived. We must map this to the audiometric grading of deafness.

Step 2: Grades by better-ear threshold are roughly mild $26-40$ dB, moderate $41-70$ dB, severe $71-95$ dB, and profound greater than $95$ dB. Normal speech sits near $50-60$ dB.

Step 3: A person needing shouting or amplification has a threshold high enough to miss $50-60$ dB speech yet low enough to catch loud sound, which places them in the $71-95$ dB band, that is the severe category.

Step 4: Functionally these patients lean on lip-reading even with strong hearing aids. Moderate loss would still allow some normal speech, and profound loss would miss even shouting, so both are excluded.

\[\boxed{\text{Severe hearing loss}}\]
Was this answer helpful?
0