How Your Body Bounces Back From Injury and Sickness
The human body can typically repair scrapes, cuts, and broken bones, though some injuries take longer than others.
But you’re out of luck when it concerns repairing the tiny little hairs in your ears.
Up to this time, at least.
Animals can heal damage to the cilia in their ears and get their hearing back, but humans don’t have that ability (though scientists are tackling it).
That means you may have an irreversible loss of hearing if you damage the hearing nerve or those little hairs.
When is Hearing Loss Permanent?
Upon discovering hearing loss, the preliminary worry that often emerges is whether the hearing will be restored.
Whether it will or not is dependent on a number of things.
There are two basic forms of hearing loss:
- Blockage-related hearing impairment: If your ear canal is partly or totally obstructed, it can mirror the symptoms of hearing loss.
Earwax, debris, and irregular growths can possibly obstruct the ear canal.
The good news is, your hearing typically recovers once the blockage is cleared away. - Damage-related hearing loss: A more common kind of hearing loss, responsible for approximately 90 percent of all cases, is caused by damage instead of other variables.
Known clinically as sensorineural hearing loss, this type of hearing loss is often irreversible.
Here’s how it works: tiny hairs in your ear move when struck with moving air (sound waves).
Your brain transforms these vibrations into auditory signals that are perceived by you as sound.
Prolonged exposure to loud noises can, however, lead to permanent damage to your hearing.
Injury to the inner ear or nerve can also cause sensorineural hearing loss.
In certain instances of severe hearing loss, a cochlear implant may be able to improve hearing function.
A hearing assessment can assist in determining if hearing aids would improve your hearing ability.
Treatment of Hearing Loss
Sensorineural hearing loss presently has no cure.
But it may be possible to get effective treatment.
The following are a few ways that getting the right treatment can help you:
- Preserve a good overall standard of living and well-being.
- Successfully address any symptoms of hearing loss that you might be encountering.
- Preserve and safeguard the hearing you still have.
- Keep solitude away by staying socially active.
- Prevent cognitive deterioration.
The kind of treatment you get for your hearing loss will differ depending on the severity of the condition.
One of the most common treatment solutions is quite simple: hearing aids.
How is Hearing Loss Treated by Hearing Aids
Individuals experiencing hearing loss can make use of hearing aids to detect sounds which will allow them to function more effectively.
Tiredness happens when the brain has to work overtime to process sound.
As researchers acquire more knowledge, they have recognized a greater threat of mental decline with a persistent lack of cognitive input.
Your cognitive function can begin to be recovered by utilizing hearing aids because they help your ears hear again.
In fact, utilizing hearing aids has been shown to slow cognitive decline by as much as 75%.
Cutting-edge hearing devices allow you to concentrate on specific sounds you want to hear while decreasing background noise.
Prevention is The Best Protection
Maintaining your hearing is essential because once it’s gone, it’s usually irretrievable. If an object becomes wedged in your ear canal, it can usually be safely cleared out.
But that doesn’t decrease the danger posed by loud noises that you might not think are loud enough to be all that hazardous.
So taking steps to protect your hearing is a good plan.
The better you safeguard your hearing today, the more treatment possibilities you’ll have when and if you are eventually diagnosed with hearing loss.
Receiving treatment can allow you to lead a fulfilling life, even if total recovery is not achievable.
To determine what your best choice is, schedule an appointment with our hearing care specialist.