Hearing Loss: Prevention is better than cure

Hearing loss is the common problem that mostly comes with aging. However, the problem has been seen among people of young age or since birth. Hearing impairment or loss is described as the partial or total inability of human beings to hear. The inability to hear exists when there is diminished sensitivity to the sounds normally heard. The most delicate organ in the human body is ear. Any kind of injury or bad treatment can affect one or more parts of ear leading to hearing impairment. Hence this organ requires a lot of care to perform properly. If a person suffers from the disease, he not only looses his hearing capability but also gets irritated, frustrated and depressed at times. The inability to hear his loved one’s voice, music or other things make him agitated. The causes of the disease are many like aging, exposure to excessive noise, injury, tumors or heredity and many others. But it has been categorised into two forms: conductive or Sensorineural. A conductive hearing impairment occurs when the sound stops reaching the inner ear. It can be occurred due to disorder in external ear, dysfunction of the eardrum or tiny inner bones. The cause of the conductive hearing impairment includes: build of earwax, holes in eardrum, middle ear infection, birth defects and the like. It can be treated by surgery or an air conduction hearing aid is an alternative choice. Sensorineural hearing loss results from disorder of the inner ear. Because of the damaged inner nerves, sound signal do not reach to the hearing centre in the brain. This type of hearing impairment occurs as we grow older due to the damage hair cells. Main reasons of this type of disease are acoustic trauma – prolonged exposure to loud noise, barotrauma – pressure trauma mainly in divers, fracture of temporal bone, side-effects of antibiotics, kidney problem, ear infection or tumor and the like. Surgery is not a treatment for sensorineural hearing impairment. However, conductive hearing aids are prescribed to many patients. Prevention is better than cure. Avoid excess noise and proper cleaning of ears from time to time is very necessary to keep away yourself from the disease. Mixed hearing loss is a combination of the two types discussed above. Chronic ear infection could result in a defective ear drum. Surgery is often attempted but not always successful. The symptoms of hearing loss are many. People start speaking loud during conversation. The reason behind this is that they themselves are not able to hear their own voice. While talking he does not understand that his voice is too low or high. People with hearing loss may have difficulty hearing on the telephone as well. Some people with the problem begin to dominate conversations. rnMostly doctors recommend hearing aids o the persons who are suffering from the hearing impairment. A hearing aid is inserted comfortably into the ear to increase the sound via speaker or amplifier. It is recommendable to use hearing aid only after the prescription of doctor. The hearing loss can be permanently treated by surgery as well but not suits all.