Hearing difficulty can be symptom of illness

Being hard of hearing is rarely an isolated ailment, but rather a symptom of underlying illness, and for this reason patients should undergo not merely a hearing test, but also a thorough ear, nose and throat examination.
Dirck Heinrich, Head of the Association of German ear, nose and throat specialists, says the origins of hearing difficulties could lie in tumours on the auditory nerve, ailments of the middle ear or noise-induced hearing loss.
Conductive hearing loss or degenerative processes could also be the cause. But Heinrich notes that hearing loss in the elderly is generally attributable to the normal ageing process.