The Recovery Capability of Your Body
While some injuries take longer to heal than others, the human body generally has no problem mending cuts, scrapes, or broken bones. But you’re out of luck when it comes to fixing the tiny little hairs in your ears. So far, at least. Animals are capable of healing damage to the cilia in their ears and get their hearing back, but humans don’t have that ability (even though scientists are working on it). What that means is, if you ruin these hairs or the hearing nerve, you could have permanent loss of hearing.
When Is Loss of Hearing Permanent?
The first thing you think of when you learn you have loss of hearing is, will it come back? And the answer is, it depends. There are two basic kinds of hearing loss:
- Damage based loss of hearing: But there’s another, more common kind of hearing loss that makes up around 90 percent of hearing loss. Known medically as sensorineural hearing loss, this type of hearing loss is usually permanent. Here’s what occurs: there are tiny hairs in your ear that vibrate when hit by moving air (sound waves). These vibrations are then changed, by your brain, into signals that you hear as sound. But your hearing can, over time, be permanently harmed by loud noises. Injury to the inner ear or nerve can also cause sensorineural hearing loss. A cochlear implant can help improve hearing in some cases of hearing loss, specifically extreme cases.
- Blockage based hearing loss: You can exhibit all the signs of hearing loss when there is something blocking your ear canal. Debris, earwax, and tumors are some of the things that can cause an obstruction. What’s promising is that once the obstruction is cleared your hearing often returns to normal.
Whether hearing aids will help improve your hearing can only be determined by having a hearing examination.
Treatment of Hearing Loss
So currently there’s no cure for sensorineural hearing loss. But it may be possible to get treatment for your loss of hearing. The following are some ways that getting the appropriate treatment can help you:
- Stop mental decline.
- Preserve and protect the hearing you have left.
- Ensure your overall quality of life is unaffected or remains high.
- Keep isolation away by staying socially engaged.
- Successfully deal with the symptoms of hearing loss you may be suffering from.
This treatment can take many forms, and it’ll normally depend on how severe your loss of hearing is. 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 who have 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 time passes the lack of sensory input has been connected with an increased risk of cognitive decay. Your cognitive function can begin to be recovered by using hearing aids because they let your ears hear again. as a matter of fact, it has been shown that wearing hearing aids can slow cognitive decline by as much as 75%. Modern hearing aids will also allow you to concentrate on what you want to hear, and tune out background sounds.
Prevention is The Best Defense
Hopefully, if you get one thing from this information, it this: you can’t depend on recovering from hearing loss, so instead you should concentrate on protecting the hearing you’ve got. Certainly, if you have something blocking your ear canal, you can probably have it extracted. But many loud noises are hazardous even though you may not think they are very loud. That’s why taking the time to safeguard your ears is a good plan. If you are inevitably diagnosed with hearing loss, you will have more treatment possibilities if you take measures today to protect your hearing. Recovery likely won’t be an option but treatment can help you continue living a great, full life. Make an appointment with a hearing care professional to decide what your best choice is.