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Sudden hearing loss in one or both ears can be a medical emergency. If your hearing suddenly becomes muffled or you have gone completely deaf in one ear, promptly contact an ENT specialist or go to an urgent care clinic. Do not wait several days to see whether it clears on its own.

When people first hear the words cochlear implant, they often imagine a long list of activities they won’t be able to do. Can I swim? Can I travel? What about sports, cooking, or going to an amusement park?

Hearing loss can affect people in every part of the world and at every stage of life. In this article, we describe how prevalent hearing loss is on a global scale and across different world regions, with spotlights on Europe and the United States, as well as hearing loss statistics by age, common risk factors, and when it may be time to get your hearing tested.

Whether you're considering a hearing implant, preparing for surgery, or are already using your device, the questions you have will change over time. MED-EL offers three distinct ways to find what you need: Build private, locally relevant connections in the Hearpeers Community; learn from public discussions about hearing implants and MED-EL products in the Hearpeers Forum; and easily access MED-EL resources to improve your hearing experience at your own pace.

Retrocochlear hearing loss affects structures beyond the cochlea, mainly the auditory nerve and promixal brainstem, but does not include higher central auditory pathways. In simple terms, sound may reach the inner ear normally, but the signal may not travel clearly from the ear to the brain. This is different from cochlear hearing loss, which starts inside the inner ear itself. Even though both are forms of sensorineural hearing loss, retrocochlear hearing loss involves the hearing nerve or neural pathways rather than the cochlea.

Diplacusis is a hearing disorder where one sound is perceived as two sounds, different pitches, or an echo-like repetition. It is often called double hearing. It may occur within one ear (monaural diplacusis) or cause a pitch mismatch between ears (binaural diplacusis), and it can be a temporary or permanent ear problem linked to hearing loss or sudden hearing changes.