Hearing loss happens when one or more parts of the ear are having a problem. This is a gradual or a sudden decrease in how well a person can hear. Considering the cause, hearing loss can be mild, severe, temporary, or permanent. On the other hand, congenital hearing loss means that a person is born with no hearing.
One may not be aware that he is suffering from a hearing loss, especially if it happened over time. However, your friends and family members may have noticed that you are having troubles understanding what they are saying. Hearing loss can be dealt with in various ways but in order to do such, knowing what causes hearing loss would be necessary.
When it comes to the adult people, noise and age are some of the most common reasons for hearing loss. A hearing loss that is noise-induced may happen slowly over a period of time.
Frequent exposure to noises like listening to loud music or when using a lawn mower have the potential to damage the structures in the inner ear which in turn leads to hearing loss. Sudden and loud noises such as an explosion can damage one’s hearing as well.
On the other hand, changes as one gets older affects the inner ear as a slow yet steady hearing loss when the cause is age-related. Such loss can be mild to severe, and is always permanent. The other factors that may cause hearing loss are earwax buildup, an injury to the head or the ear, an object inside the ear, ruptured eardrum, ear infection, and other kinds of conditions that may affect the inner or the middle ear.
As hearing loss may be due to various reasons, the treatment can be in different ways as well. But of course, it is always necessary to visit a doctor and undergo physical exams and ask your doctor about the symptoms.
The doctor will take a look at your ears using a lighted device which is also known as otoscope. If the doctor thinks that you have a hearing loss problem, he will perform hearing tests in order to check if you have indeed a hearing loss and be able to find out how severe it is. An audiologist would be the one to perform the tests.
Some of the tests would include: whisper test that will check how well a person can hear a whispered speech, tuning fork test that will help the doctor know the kind of hearing loss you are suffering from, and the other one is the test that will determine the kind of hearing loss one should have, as well as the affected part of the ear.
Age-related and noise-induced hearing loss could be treated with the help of hearing devices like a hearing aid. The other kinds of devices that can help alert a person to the different sounds in the house are doorbells and phones. If a hearing aid will not work, cochlear implant is the next option. There are also ways that a person can do to live even with reduced hearing like paying attention to the gestures of the people, posture, their facial expressions, as well as their tone of voice.
For the other types of hearing loss, the problem that caused it can be treated. For instance, one can remove the earwax or by taking a medicine for some infections to help a person get his hearing back. Other ways would to avoid loud noise like the ones coming from machines, loud music, power tools, and loud motorcycles.
A person should also turn down high volumes of listening devices through headphones, ear buds, or MP3 players. In addition, wearing hearing protections like ear muffs and ear plugs would help. Putting objects in the ear should also be avoided. Moreover, gently blow your nose through your nostrils.