The Healing Capability of Your Body
While some injuries take longer to heal than others, the human body normally has no issue healing cuts, scrapes, or broken bones. But you’re out of luck when it comes to fixing the tiny little hairs in your ears. So far, at least. Animals are able to heal damage to the cilia in their ears and get their hearing back, but humans don’t possess that ability (even though scientists are working on it). That means, if you injure these hairs or the hearing nerve, you could have irreversible loss of hearing.
When Is Hearing Loss Irreversible?
The first question you think of when you find out you have hearing loss is, will I get it back? Whether it will or not depends on several things. Fundamentally, there are two kinds of hearing loss:
- Damage based loss of hearing: But there’s another, more widespread kind of hearing loss that makes up nearly 90 percent of hearing loss. Known clinically as sensorineural hearing loss, this kind of hearing loss is usually irreversible. Here’s how it works: there are tiny hairs in your ear that move when hit with moving air (sound waves). These vibrations are then turned, by your brain, into impulses that you hear as sound. But your hearing can, as time passes, be permanently harmed by loud noises. Sensorineural hearing loss can also be caused by damage to the nerve or to the inner ear. A cochlear implant can help restore hearing in some cases of hearing loss, specifically severe cases.
- Blockage based loss of hearing: When there’s something obstructing your ear canal, you can experience all the symptoms of hearing loss. Debris, earwax, and tumors are some of the things that can cause an obstruction. The good news is that once the blockage is cleared your hearing usually returns to normal.
A hearing exam can help you determine whether hearing aids will help restore your hearing.
Hearing Loss Treatment
Sensorineural hearing loss presently has no cure. But it might be possible to get treatment for your loss of hearing. The following are some ways that getting the right treatment can help you:
- Protect and preserve the hearing you still have.
- Guarantee your overall quality of life is unaffected or remains high.
- Stay engaged socially, keeping isolation away.
- Prevent mental decline.
- Cope successfully with any of the symptoms of hearing loss you may be suffering from.
Based on how extreme your hearing loss is, this procedure can have many kinds. One of the most common treatment options is pretty simple: hearing aids.
Why Are Hearing Aids an effective Treatment for Hearing Loss?
People who have loss of hearing can use hearing aids to perceive sounds and work as efficiently as possible. Fatigue is caused when the brain strains to hear because hearing is hampered. As scientist gain more insights, they have recognized an increased chance of mental decline with a continued lack of cognitive input. Your cognitive function can begin to be restored by using hearing aids because they allow your ears hear again. In fact, wearing hearing aids has been demonstrated to slow cognitive decline by as much as 75%. Modern day hearing aids can also help you focus on what you want to hear, and drown out background sounds.
The Best Protection Is Prevention
Hopefully, if you get one thing from this knowledge, it this: you should protect the hearing you have because you can’t depend on recovering from hearing loss. Certainly, you can have any obstruction in your ear removed. But many loud noises are dangerous even though you might not think they are that loud. That’s why it’s not a bad strategy to take the time to protect your ears. If you are inevitably diagnosed with loss of hearing, you will have more treatment possibilities if you take steps today to protect your hearing. Recovery won’t likely be a possibility but treatment can help you keep living a great, full life. Contact a hearing care professional to decide what your best choice is.