ABSTRACT

Presbyacusis is the deafness of ageing. It is the commonest cause of sensorineural hearing loss in the population. In fact there is a steady deterioration of hearing acuity from the age of approximately 18 years onwards, but this only rarely manifests itself clinically in those under the age of 50. Averaged figures for normal deterioration over the decades are available, and they are used to calculate age-associated hearing loss when reporting for personal injury claims on cases of noise-induced deafness (legal issues on NIHL, Chapter 20).