What a 5 dB hearing level means on an audiogram
Quick answer
A threshold of 5 decibels hearing level is recorded as normal hearing on the severity scale used in routine United States audiology practice, and as no impairment under the World Health Organization 2021 grades. The two scales genuinely disagree at this threshold, which is why the same audiogram can be described two different ways.
What does 5 dB HL mean on an audiogram?
Decibels hearing level, written dB HL, is not a measure of how loud something is in a room. It is a measure of how much louder than a reference normal threshold a tone had to be before it was heard during a test. A threshold of 5 dB HL means the tone had to be raised 5 decibels above that reference before the person being tested indicated they could hear it.
That is why a larger number means more hearing loss, and it is why an audiogram is plotted with the quietest levels at the top of the chart and the loudest at the bottom. A point plotted lower on the chart is a tone that had to be louder.
At 5 dB HL, the clinical convention says normal hearing and the WHO 2021 grades say no impairment.
| Classification | Range containing 5 dB HL | What it is called |
|---|---|---|
| United States clinical convention | -10 to 25 dB HL | Normal hearing |
| World Health Organization, 2021 | 0 to 19 dB HL | No impairment |
What a threshold at this level typically shows
Thresholds in this range are recorded as normal hearing for an adult on this scale.
This describes what the category means, not what any individual experiences. Two people with identical audiograms frequently report very different amounts of difficulty, because understanding speech depends on far more than the quietest tone a person can detect. That gap is one of the main reasons hearing is evaluated by a clinician rather than read off a chart.
Which number the category is applied to
A severity category is normally applied to the pure tone average, the mean of the thresholds at 500, 1000 and 2000 hertz, rather than to a single frequency. Applying it to one high frequency threshold instead is a common way to reach an answer that sounds far worse than the audiogram supports, because high frequency thresholds are usually the poorest ones on an age related audiogram.
The severity categories used in routine United States audiology practice, applied to a pure tone average of 500, 1000 and 2000 hertz.
| Range (dB HL) | Category |
|---|---|
| -10 to 25 | Normal hearing |
| 26 to 40 | Mild hearing loss |
| 41 to 55 | Moderate hearing loss |
| 56 to 70 | Moderately severe hearing loss |
| 71 to 90 | Severe hearing loss |
| 91 to 120 | Profound hearing loss |
Common questions
- Is 5 dB hearing loss bad?
- On the clinical scale used in United States audiology practice, 5 dB HL falls in the normal hearing range. Whether that matters in daily life depends on far more than the number, including which frequencies are affected, whether both ears are similar, and how much time is spent in noisy places. Only an audiologist can interpret a threshold in the context of a full audiogram.
- What is dB HL, and how is it different from dBA?
- Decibels hearing level, dB HL, describes how much louder than a reference normal threshold a tone had to be before it was heard. Decibels A-weighted, dBA, describes the actual sound pressure level in a room, filtered to approximate human frequency sensitivity. A vacuum cleaner is about 75 dBA; a hearing threshold of 75 dB HL is a completely different kind of measurement.
- Why do the two classifications disagree?
- They were written for different purposes. The World Health Organization grades are designed for population level reporting and set the boundary of unimpaired hearing at 20 dB HL. The clinical convention used in routine practice treats thresholds up to 25 dB HL as normal in adults. Neither is incorrect, but quoting a boundary without saying which scale it came from produces genuine confusion.
- Would an over the counter hearing aid be appropriate at this level?
- Over the counter hearing aids are labelled for adults 18 and over with perceived mild to moderate hearing loss, which on the clinical scale is roughly 26 to 55 dB HL. That labelling describes the intended user rather than a guarantee, and it is not a substitute for an evaluation. Severe and profound loss, loss in one ear only, and anyone under 18 are prescription territory.
- Can a threshold at this level improve?
- That depends entirely on the cause, which is exactly why it is a clinical question. Conductive causes such as an earwax blockage or fluid in the middle ear are frequently treatable and the threshold changes once they are addressed. Sensorineural changes generally are not reversed. Nothing on this page can tell you which applies to any particular audiogram.
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Last updated 2026-09-17.