Your Body’s Capacity to Heal
The human body commonly can heal scratches, cuts, and broken bones, although some injuries take longer than others. But you’re out of luck when it comes to repairing the tiny little hairs in your ears. At least, so far. Animals are capable of healing damage to the cilia in their ears and recover their hearing, but humans don’t possess that ability (although scientists are working on it). That means, if you damage these hairs or the hearing nerve, you could have permanent hearing loss.
At What Point Does Loss of Hearing Become Irreversible?
The first thing you think of when you learn you have hearing loss is, will I get it back? Whether it will or not depends on several things. Fundamentally, there are two types of hearing loss:
- Damage based hearing loss: But about 90 percent of hearing loss is accounted for by another, more prevalent cause. This kind of hearing loss, which is often irreversible, is known as sensorineural hearing loss. This is how it works: When hit by moving air (sound waves), tiny little hairs in your ears vibrate. These vibrations are then turned, by your brain, into impulses that you hear as sound. But loud noises can damage the hairs and, over time, permanently diminish your hearing. Sensorineural hearing loss can also be from injury to the nerve or to the inner ear. A cochlear implant could help improve hearing in some cases of hearing loss, specifically extreme cases.
- Blockage based loss of hearing: When there’s something obstructing your ear canal, you can exhibit all the signs of hearing loss. This blockage can be caused by a wide range of things, from earwax to debris to tumors. Your hearing usually returns to normal once the obstruction is cleared, and that’s the good news.
A hearing examination can help you figure out whether hearing aids will help restore your hearing.
Hearing Loss Treatment
So presently there’s no cure for sensorineural hearing loss. But that’s not to say you can’t get treatment for your hearing loss. The following are some ways that getting the appropriate treatment can help you:
- Stop mental decline.
- Keep isolation away by staying socially engaged.
- Preserve and protect the hearing you have left.
- Cope successfully with the symptoms of hearing loss you might be suffering from.
- Ensure your general quality of life is unaffected or remains high.
Based on how serious your hearing loss is, this procedure can take on many kinds. One of the simplest treatments is also one of the most common: hearing aids.
Why Are Hearing Aids a Good Treatment for Hearing Loss?
People with hearing loss can use hearing aids to detect sounds and perform as efficiently as possible. Fatigue is caused when the brain strains to hear because hearing is hampered. As scientist gain more insights, they have identified a greater chance of mental decline with a persistent lack of cognitive input. By allowing your ears to hear again, hearing aids help you restore mental function. As a matter of fact, wearing hearing aids has been shown to slow cognitive decline by as much as 75%. Background noise can also be tuned out by modern-day hearing aids letting you concentrate on what you want to hear.
The Best Protection Is Prevention
Hopefully, if you take one thing away from this knowledge, it this: you can’t count on recovering from loss of hearing, so instead you should focus on protecting the hearing you’ve got. Sure, if you have something blocking your ear canal, more than likely you can have it removed. But that doesn’t mitigate the threat from loud noises, noises you may not even consider to be loud enough to really be all that dangerous. That’s why it’s not a bad strategy to take the time to safeguard your ears. If you are eventually diagnosed with loss of hearing, you will have more treatment options if you take measures today to protect your hearing. Recovery likely won’t be a possibility but treatment can help you keep living a great, full life. To determine what your best choice is, schedule an appointment with a hearing care professional.