performing a pure tone audiometry (an audiogram) in which bone conduction thresholds are measured. Tympanometry and speech audiometry may be helpful. Testing is performed by an audiologist. There is no proven or recommended treatment or cure for SNHL; management of hearing loss is usually by hearing strategies and hearing aids. In cases of profound or total deafness, a cochlear implant is a specialised hearing aid that may restore a functional level of hearing. SNHL is at least partially preventable by avoiding environmental noise, ototoxic chemicals and drugs, and head trauma, and treating or inoculating against certain triggering diseases and conditions like meningitis. Signs and symptoms Since the inner ear is not directly accessible to instruments, identification is by patient report of the symptoms and audiometric testing. Of those who present to their doctor with sensorineural hearing loss, 90% report having diminished hearing, 57% report having a plugged feeling in ear, and 49% report having ringing in ear (tinnitus). About half report vestibular (vertigo) problems. For a detailed exposition of symptoms useful for screening, a self-assessment questionnaire was developed by the American Academy of Otolaryngology, called the Hearing Handicap Inventory for Adults (HHIA). It is a 25-question survey of subjective symptoms. Causes Sensorineural hearing loss may be genetic or acquired (i.e. as a consequence of disease, noise, trauma, etc.). People may have a hearing loss from birth (congenital) or the hearing loss may come on later. Many cases are related to old age (age-related). Genetic Hearing loss can be inherited. More than 40 genes have been implicated in the cause of deafness. There are 300 syndromes with related hearing loss, and each syndrome may have causative genes. Recessive, dominant, X-linked, or mitochondrial genetic mutations can affect the structure or metabolism of the inner ear. Some may be single point mutations, whereas others are due to chromosomal abnormalities. Some genetic causes give rise to a late onset hearing loss. Mitochondrial mutations can cause SNHL i.e. m.1555A>G, which makes the individual sensitive to the ototoxic effects of aminoglycoside antibiotics. The most common cause of recessive genetic congenital hearing impairment in developed countries is DFNB1, also known as Connexin 26 deafness or GJB2-related deafness. The most common syndromic forms of hearing impairment include (dominant) Stickler syndrome and Waardenburg syndrome, and (recessive) Pendred syndrome and Usher syndrome. Mitochondrial mutations causing deafness are rare: MT-TL1 mutations cause MIDD (Maternally inherited deafness and diabetes) and other conditions