Live Life Team
This is a condition where the patient has his hearing capabilities affected by any of the reasons like an injury, disorder or a disease. When we look at the formation of the ears, it has three parts as outer ear, middle ear and the inner portion of it. There is an ear drum which is a layer of tissues or a membrane to separate the outer and the middle ear parts. The eardrum vibrates with the sound waves coming from outside and then the waves pass through ossicles which is responsible for amplifying the vibrations and then passes those to the inner ear. When it comes to the inner ear, it is made up of cochlea and the auditory nerve. As per the doctors and specialists, the impairment can be conductive hearing loss and another type called as sensorinueral hearing loss. Conductive is caused by an interference with sound transmissions from outer ear and sensorinueral is caused due to the problem with the inner ear portion. The impairment can also be divided into its levels as mild, moderate, sever and profound deafness.
Symptoms
The symptoms are different in different situations and also depend upon the causes. In some cases it can be a sudden or profound loss in the capabilities of hearing. These can be caused by lot of factors ranging from any infections or any viral and could be an injury to the head or ears. In some other cases, the patients might just feel a gradual decrease in their ability to hear and then it may just lead to loss of hearing after some time. The other commonly known symptoms related to the deafness are whistling sounds in the ears, a little dizziness and also loss of balance or a proper co-ordination lack among the two ears.
Causes
There are lots of causes which could be behind any hearing loss and can range from anything to anywhere. Some of the most common causes for conductive hearing loss are middle ear infection, rheumatoid arthritis, disorders of middle ear or injury to eardrum. Some causes known for sensorinueral hearing loss are like age-related hearing loss, any injury to the hair cells, meniere’s diseases, viral infections, multiple sclerosis, any brain strokes or tumors. In some cases the patient may suffer from both the types of impairments. The largest reason found behind impairments is aging and people on maximum loss a little of their hearing during the age of 30 to 40 years. With age the hair cells in the cochlea get destroyed and hence cause the deafness.
Diagnosis
NHS in UK would check out and test every single new born baby for the hearing impairment and this actually helps in early diagnosis and chances of better communication and language development increase. There also adult diagnosis to check the hearing abilities of adults.
Treatment
Hearing aids are available in the market which can be behind the ear, body worn or bone conduction type of aids. There can also be cochlear implants which are useful for people with profound deafness.
