To better understand the various types of hearing losses and how they affect our hearing ability, it will be helpful to first understand how our hearing mechanism works.

The ear sensory organs comprise of the auditory system which is responsible for the detection of sound and the vestibular system which help to maintain body balance. The ear can be divided into three parts: the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. Any damages along the hearing pathway from the outer-ear to the middle-ear to the inner-ear can cause hearing loss and they can be classified into conductive, sensorineural or mixed hearing loss.