Sudden Hearing Loss - Causes and Cures

Losing hearing power over a short span of time or at once is called sudden hearing loss or sensorineural hearing loss. It is often caused by dysfunction of the inner ear, the cochlea, the nerve that transmits the impulses from the cochlea to the hearing centre in the brain or damage in the brain. The most common reason for sensorineural hearing impairment is damage to the hair cells in the cochlea.

There are many reasons or causes of sensorineural hearing loss like:

Congenital

• Lack of development of the cochlea
• Chromosomal syndromes (rare)
• Congenital cholesteatoma - squamous epithelium is normally present on either side of the tympanic membrane. Externally, within the external auditory meatus or ear canal and internally within the middle ear. Within the middle ear the simple epithelium gradually transitions into ciliated pseudo stratified epithelium lining the Eustachian tube now known as the pharyngotympanic tube becoming continuous with the respiratory epithelium in the pharynx. The squamous epithelium hyperplasia within the middle ear behaves like an invasive tumor and destroys middle ear structures if not removed.
• Delayed familial progressive
• Congenital rubella syndrome, CRS
• Long term exposure to environmental noise
• Genetic: Hearing loss can be inherited. Both dominant and recessive genes exist which can cause mild to profound impairment
• Disease or illness
• Measles
• Meningitis
• Autoimmune disease.
• Wegener's granulomatosis.
• Auto inflammatory disease,
• Mumps
• Presbycusis.
• AIDS and ARC patients requently experience auditory system anomalies.
• HIV
• Chlamydia
• Fetal alcohol yndrome
• Premature birth results in sensorineural hearing loss approximately 5% of the time. Syphilis is commonly transmitted from pregnant women to their fetuses, and about a third of the infected children will eventually become deaf^.
• Otosclerosis is a hardening of the stapes (or stirrup) in the middle ear, and causes conductive hearing loss.

Medications

Some medications cause irreversible damage to the ear, and are limited in their use for this reason. The most important group is the amino glycosides (main member gentamicin). Extremely heavy hydrocodone (Vicodin) abuse is known to cause hearing impairment.

Physical Trauma

• There can be damage either to the ear itself or to the brain centers that process the aural information conveyed by the ears.
• People who sustain head injury are especially vulnerable to hearing loss or tinnitus, either temporary or permanent.
• Exposure to very loud noise can cause progressive hearing loss. Exposure to a single event of extremely loud noise (such as explosions) can also cause temporary or permanent hearing loss.

People who are suffering from sudden hear loss should seek an ENT doctor immediately for proper treatment and diagnose of the problem. ENT specialist can stop any previous medication if that is causing damage to your ear or may suggest you to avoid loud sounds, and give you proper medication to solve your problem of sudden hearing loss.