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Age-related and other hearing loss

1SymptomaticAI-generated

Hearing loss remains manageable, but no cure exists yetAI-generated

Burden-over-time charts — how many people this disease affects and whether that number is rising or falling — are coming to this page. The treatability read, milestones, and live trial pipeline below are current.

What's being tested now

2000: 1 trials started2001: 1 trials started2002: 1 trials started2010: 1 trials started2011: 2 trials started2013: 1 trials started2014: 2 trials started2015: 1 trials started2016: 1 trials started2017: 5 trials started2018: 6 trials started2019: 12 trials started2020: 5 trials started2021: 20 trials started2022: 23 trials started2023: 38 trials started2024: 60 trials started2025: 88 trials started2026: 85 trials started200020102020202688

Trials started per year, stacked by phase (darker = later phase). Source: ClinicalTrials.gov via Clin2, which tracks studies recruiting in recent years — early years undercount.

See all 325 active Cochlear Hearing Loss trials on Clin2 →

Where we are

AI-generated

Treatments for age-related and other hearing loss are symptomatic: hearing aids, cochlear implants, and assistive devices amplify sound but do not slow or reverse the underlying nerve damage. Aging populations make hearing loss more common worldwide, and no disease-modifying therapy has been approved. No named milestone in prevention or reversal is on record. Research is nonetheless active: 320 trials began in the past five years, including 10 phase-3 studies, with 325 trials currently under way. Whether these efforts will yield the first treatment to change the disease course remains uncertain; for now, manageability does not mean a cure.

Can age-related hearing loss be reversed?
No. Current treatments are symptomatic and do not restore damaged inner-ear cells. Research into regeneration and gene therapy is ongoing, but no approved therapy has yet shown reversal in people.
Is hearing loss a normal part of aging?
It is very common, and risk rises with age. That does not make it unimportant; many people retain useful hearing with supportive devices. Avoiding noise damage remains the only established preventive measure.
Are there any new treatments in development?
Yes. In the past five years, 320 trials began, including 10 phase-3 studies; 325 trials are active now. These are testing a range of approaches, but none has yet been approved as a disease-modifying therapy.
Do hearing aids slow down hearing loss?
No. Hearing aids improve access to sound but do not affect the underlying degeneration. They can help with communication, but they do not change the biological course of the condition.
Will scientists find a cure soon?
The pace of research has increased, and late-stage trials are underway. Whether any will succeed cannot be predicted. A realistic hope is that new treatments may emerge, but no cure is on the immediate horizon.

Related

Other sense organ diseases

Burden estimates: IHME Global Burden of Disease Study. Drug indications: ChEMBL (CC BY-SA). Trial data: ClinicalTrials.gov via Clin2. Velocity, acceleration, and turning points are computed by Clin2 — how this page is made. Treatability describes what medicine can do, not what is available everywhere. This page describes populations, not people, and is not medical advice.