Demystifying Hearing Loss: Causes, Symptoms and Treatments

Hearing loss is very common. Despite what you may have heard, it can happen at any age, although it is true that it’s somewhat more common and more likely the older you get. The good news is that it is perfectly possible to live a full and happy life with hearing loss, even if it is quite pronounced and advanced. But there are still a lot of confusions around it, and it might be handy to take a closer look at these.

Here are some of the main areas where people often get confused about hearing loss. Let’s demystify some of these by discussing the causes, symptoms and available treatments for hearing loss today.

What Causes Hearing Loss?

Hearing loss can occur as the result of quite a few different things, and it’s something that a lot of people are going to experience in their life, partly for that reason. In fact, there are a few major types of hearing loss, and these are dependent on and related to what the underlying causes actually are.

Conductive Hearing Loss

Conductive hearing loss occurs when there is an actual problem with the mechanics of the ear itself. For instance, there might be a problem with one of the bones conducting sound. Or perhaps the eardrum has been burst or damaged in some way. Those are just examples of how conductive hearing loss can occur.

You might get conductive hearing loss as a result of wax buildup, the buildup of fluid, perhaps from an infection, or by having an object stuck in the ear – particularly common with young children. It could also be caused by a hole in the eardrum. Fortunately, the nature of conductive hearing loss is that it is normally quite treatable, but it does of course depend on the ultimate cause.

Sensorineural Hearing Loss

Sensorineural hearing loss is the result of damaged nerve endings in the ear. That means that they cannot detect sounds, either at all or in part. Most of the time, this is a type of hearing loss that cannot be treated. You might have Sensorineural hearing loss if you have age-related hearing loss, or hearing loss as a result of exposure to loud environments. On the other hand, it can be the result of a condition such as measles.

Other Factors that Influence Hearing Loss

There are other factors that can lead to hearing loss. Some of these may impact you at birth, while others are the result of additional conditions, including:

• • Congenital hearing loss, which happens at birth,
  • Hearing loss as a result of injury,
  • Temporary hearing loss in an accident.
  • Exposure to loud noise

Medications

Hearing Loss Symptoms

It’s handy to know too about some of the major symptoms that you can expect to have with hearing loss. This enables you to spot it early on, and get the help you need as soon as possible – and before the hearing loss gets any more advanced, in particular.

Some common symptoms of hearing loss include:

• Difficulty following conversations
• Having trouble talking in loud environments
• Trouble hearing on the phone
• Asking people to repeat themselves
• Feeling tired from conversations
• Feeling socially isolated

You might have noticed some of these happening gradually, or it might happen more and more commonly over time. In such a case, it can be a subtle enough change to be hard to spot, and that can mean that you don’t really know how to approach it. However, if you can keep alert to such changes, that is going to help a lot.

The important thing is to note any symptoms that do arise, so you can do something about them as soon as possible.

Treating Hearing Loss

As it happens, there are quite a few ways to treat hearing loss, and the act of treatment is only getting easier and easier with time. Naturally, the manner in which it is treated will depend largely on what type of hearing loss and what the underlying cause is. If it is caused by wax buildup or an object in the ear, the treatment will be quite different to a nerve ending problem.

For long-term hearing loss, such as age-related hearing loss, the treatment will normally be some kind of hearing aid. There are many devices out there these days, depending on the degree of hearing loss you are experiencing, and your audiologist will be able to recommend the correct one for your needs.

If you want to find out more about hearing loss, or you think you might be going through it yourself, then contact Siouxland Hearing Healthcare, P.L.C. at (712) 266-3662.