One can have problems in hearing due to many reasons. Ears are a very delicate part of our body, and damage to one’s hearing abilities can be a problem-creating in day-to-day life. As stated, there can be many causes of losing one’s hearing abilities, but they are treatable. With many types of surgeries and hearing aids available now, it has been quite helpful to people who lost their hearing abilities due to many different reasons and the people with hearing abilities from birth.
Hearing loss or also called hearing impairment, is partial or total inability to hear. That means the person with hearing impairment may have little to no hearing. And there is a wide range of causes for hearing impairment.
Before understanding the cause and treatment of hearing loss, understanding of types of hearing loss based on different aspects is necessary, based on the time of development of hearing impairment; hearing loss present at the time of birth is called Congenital Deafness, and the loss of hearing that occurs at some time during a person’s life but was not present at birth is called Acquired Deafness. There are different reasons for each hearing loss and different treatments as required.
Another main basis of differentiating between different hearing loss types is dependent on the damaged part, which resulted in hearing loss. The following are three basic types of hearing loss:
- Conductive Hearing Loss
- Sensorineural Hearing Loss
- Combined or Mixed Hearing Loss
To understand these types of hearing loss, one needs to understand the working of the ear. , the ear comprises three parts- The outer, the middle, and the inner ear. The outer ear includes the pinna and ear canal. There is an eardrum at the end of the ear canal, where the middle ear starts. The middle ear has three small bones called ossicles. And the last inner ear has two functions- Hearing and Balance. The cochlea is the hearing part, and the semicircular canals are part of the balance system.
Depending upon which part of the ear is damaged, the above classification is made. When a person gets both the outer and middle ear damaged, then conductive hearing loss happens. In this hearing loss, a person cannot hear soft sounds, and the louder sounds may be muffled as there is a problem in conducting sound waves anywhere along the route through the outer ear or middle ear, i.e., the sound is not transmitted to the inner ear.
Sensorineural hearing loss, abbreviated as SNHL, happens due to inner ear damage. In this type of hearing loss, soft sounds and louder sounds can’t be heard and are unclear or muffled. This is the most common type of permanent hearing loss. Generally, medicine or surgery cannot fix Sensorineural hearing loss, though hearing aids may help.
When Conductive hearing loss happens simultaneously as Sensorineural hearing loss, there is damage in the outer or middle ear and the inner ear, so hearing loss is known as Combined or Mixed hearing loss.
The causes of Conductive hearing loss:
- Fluid in the middle ear due to cold or allergies.
- Otitis media, i.e., middle ear infection.
- When working of the tube that connects the middle ear and nose, namely the Eustachian tube, is not correct, then the middle ear’s fluid can’t be drained, which causes temporary hearing loss.
- Hole or perforation in the eardrum.
- Earwax stuck in the ear canal.
- External otitis, i.e., infection in the ear canal.
- Congenital hearing loss when no outer ear is there from birth or Acquired hearing loss when ear canal or ossicles is deformed or have some problem.
- Otosclerosis, a disease of middle ear bones.
The causes of Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL):
- Different illnesses.
- Drugs harmful to hearing.
- Hereditary hearing loss.
- Aging.
- A blow in the head.
- Congenital hearing loss when the formation of the inner ear is not correct or is problematic.
- Exposure to loud noises or explosions.
- Damage to the cochlea or damage in the auditory nerve pathway to the brain.
How The Hearing Room helps you with this:
To access all the help you want to get from the clinic, go to the website thehearingroom.ca and get the best you can. The clinic helps one understand the nature of the problem and then presents with the best treatment available. According to the causes responsible for creating difficulty in hearing, the treatment is given. If the hearing loss is temporary and is caused by ear wax blockage or cerumen blockage, then the audiologist or an ENT physician can help one with the issue. If any surgery is required in case of temporary hearing loss, the surgeons can help accordingly; for example, a person with an ear infection can be treated with minor surgery. A person in some severe cases may require a cochlea implant. As stated in the case of permanent hearing loss, i.e., Sensorineural hearing loss, surgery, or medicine cannot help. The permanent hearing loss cannot be treated or reversed, but hearing aids can help to many extents in such cases and prevent further sensory deprivation. Cochlear implants are also an option in case of total or permanent hearing loss. The cochlear implants are surgically implanted battery-powered electronic medical devices that are implanted in the inner ear. These work differently from the hearing aids as hearing aids make the sound louder while the cochlear implants are designed to damage the inner ear, which provides the brain with signals.
There are many types of hearing aids provided by the clinic suitable to the needs, economy, and choice. Smaller, compact, clinically proved, and user-friendly hearing aids are available, making patients’ lives with hearing impairment better. The treatment of hearing inability makes the patient happier, less frustrated, and alert while increasing their confidence and emotional stability.
