notesonly.in

An elderly man hears better in noise — wait, worse; he says 'what?' constantly — presbycusis. Age-related sensorineural loss (hair-cell degeneration — high frequencies first: consonants vanish, 'what?' repeats; bilateral, gradual): hearing aids amplify remaining hearing. Audiometry distinguishes — conductive (air-bone gap: wax, fluid, otosclerosis — often fixable) vs sensorineural (no gap — nerve/hair cell; aids or cochlear implant if profound). The 'what?' is frequency loss — consonants carry meaning, and they're first to go.