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Treatments for Hearing Loss

By Christine Marie Paguntalan

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 21Oct2009 Word count: 548 Viewed: 256 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

When you or a loved one suffers a hearing loss, it is important to find out the cause of the hearing loss and the possible treatments. To understand how hearing loss occurs, it is important to understand how a person hears.

The ear is made up of three parts: the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. The outer ear directs the sound down a canal to the middle ear. The middle ear contains three bones, the anvil, hammer and stirrup, which begin to vibrate and move the sound to the inner ear. The inner ear is where the most important part of the ear, the cochlea, is located.

The cochlea is shaped like a snail shell and is filled with fluid and tiny hairs. The hairs in the cochlea vibrate and convert sound to electrical impulses that get transmitted to the brain along the hearing nerve.

All of the parts of the ear must function correctly or the person suffers hearing loss. Hearing loss can be a minor inconvenience of only not being able to hear very high or very low sounds, to complete deafness.

Hearing loss can also be temporary or permanent. The ear, especially the middle and inner ear, can be damaged by infection, head trama, loud noise and the normal process of aging. The treatment available and the prognosis for the person are directly related to knowing the cause of the hearing loss.

To determine the cause and the extent of a persons hearing loss, doctors look at the patient's hearing system, their over-all health and lifestyle as well as administering hearing tests. If the problem with the hearing is one that has developed over time and is only moderate, the doctor usually associates this with a problem with the outer or middle ear. This type of hearing loss is usually caused by trama to the outer ear, middle ear infections or a perforated ear drum. These things are all treatable with surgery, antibiotics and/or special ear drops. Once the problem has been corrected, the patient's hearing usually returns to normal. Hearing loss from damage to the inner ear is a bigger problem. This kind of hearing loss can come on all of a sudden or it can appear gradually, and it is usually permanent. If the tiny hairs in the cochlea are damaged, the patient can lose the ability to hear certain sounds or become completely deaf. If it is the hearing nerve that is damaged, then the loss is usually gradual and the patient might experience ringing in the ears. Hearing loss that is located in the inner ear or in the hearing nerve is not usually treatable with antibiotics. There are new advances with cochlear implants that have helped some patients regain at least partial hearing. If the hearing loss is not complete, an audiologist can often recommend a hearing aid that can be of tremendous help to the patient and in many cases, resdtore hearing almost completely. Hearing aids can be almost invisible to other people and fit down in the ear canal. Most insurances cover a percentage of the cost of hearing aids and the wide range of styles available assure the patient of being able to find a device that is comfortable and ascetically pleasing.

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