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Mild, moderate, severe and profound hearing loss

  • Written by Steve Claridge

A person’s hearing loss is categorised as being either mild, moderate, severe or profound. Audiologists and other hearing professionals use these terms; the four types of hearing loss are defined as follows:

  • Mild means that the person is unable to hear sounds between 20dB and 40dB
  • Moderate means that the person is unable to hear sounds between 41dB and 70dB
  • Severe means that the person is unable to hear sounds between 71dB and 95dB
  • Profound means that the person is unable to hear sounds below 95dB

You can have a look at decibel levels of common sounds to get an idea of what sounds a person with each kind of loss will, or will not, be able to hear.