Hearing Loss Lab
Douglas Bennion, MD, PhD

Hearing loss impacts the lives of essentially every person, whether directly as a patient or indirectly as a family member or friend of someone who is hard-of-hearing. One in every three older adults suffers from some form of hearing loss, which arises from conditions such as presbycusis (age-related hearing loss), temporary or permanent noise-induced hearing loss, sudden sensorineural hearing loss, or various genetic forms of hearing loss in which impairment begins at much earlier life stages. For others at various life stages, there are a multitude of causes of conductive hearing loss, only some of which are surgically correctable. Recent work has uncovered a profound link between hearing loss and cognitive decline, with hearing loss having been identified as the leading modifiable risk factor for dementia.