3 Types of Hearing Loss

Everyone knows someone who has gotten older and needs the TV volume a little higher than others because of their declining hearing. In fact, aging is a major role in hearing loss and hearing reduction, but there are many different types of hearing loss with their own causes. If you believe you or someone you know is losing their hearing, check out these three types of hearing loss.

Inside your inner ear are tiny hairs that transmit sound entering the ear to the brain for processing. These hairs can get damaged for many reasons, including aging, noise damage, and disease. When this damage happens, it can lead to sensorineural hearing loss.

In most cases, sensorineural hearing loss is gradual, so you may not even realize your hearing is diminishing. However, if you do suspect you have this form of hearing loss, pay attention to how well you hear higher pitched voices. People with sensorineural hearing loss often have a hard time hearing higher pitched sounds. You also may have a harder time blocking out background noise in loud environments.

In most cases, the treatment for sensorineural hearing loss involves the use of a hearing aid. Hearing implants can be beneficial to people with severe hearing loss.

Conductive hearing loss happens when the sound energy cannot be transferred to the cochlea properly. Symptoms include muffled hearing, sudden loss of hearing, fullness in the ears, draining of the ear, and pain or tenderness in the ear. In some cases, the cause is as simple as too much earwax or something stuck in the ear, but an infection can also cause this type of hearing loss.

Eardrum damage, such as holes, defects in the bones or canal, and ear fluid can also affect your hearing, causing everything to sound muffled. In more severe cases, the eardrum may completely collapse or start to grow skin cells, known as cholesteatoma, which can damage the ear bones.

Treatment may be as simple as removing whatever is stuck in the ear, such as earwax, but surgery is often required to repair damaged eardrums or ear bones. In other cases, you may need a hearing aid or and implant hearing device.

In some cases, patients may suffer from both conductive hearing loss and sensorineural hearing loss. This situation is referred to as mixed hearing loss, and it may require multiple treatments.

In some cases, your ear receives sounds perfectly, but when it tries to transfer that sound to the brain to make sense out of the sounds, something goes wrong and the sound is processed incorrectly. Usually, people with this disorder have it from birth because many of the causes are related to pregnancy, such as premature birth, lack of oxygen at birth, and severe jaundice as a newborn.

However, some people can develop auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder later in life due to infectious disease, trauma, and ototoxic drug exposure.

This type of auditory disorder is commonly associated with cochlear implants, which take over transferring the sound to the brain. It will still take time for you to really understand speech, but once you can, a cochlear implant can make it possible for you to hear again or for the first time.

You may have one or more type of hearing complications, but there are many treatments available that may give you back some or all of your hearing. If you would like to know more about hearing loss and how to improve your hearing with hearing aids, contact us at Accurate Hearing Technology today.