How Your Body Rebounds From Injury and Illness
The human body can normally repair scrapes, cuts, and fractured bones, though some injuries take longer than others.
Regrettably, there is no cure for the delicate hair cells in your ears once they become damaged.
Up to this time, at least.
Animals can heal damage to the hair cells in their ears and get their hearing back, but humans don’t have that ability (though scientists are working on it).
That means you could have a permanent loss of hearing if you damage the hearing nerve or those tiny hairs.
When is Hearing Loss Irreversible?
The first thing you think of when you discover you have hearing loss is whether it will return.
It is unclear if it will happen, as it is dependent on various elements.
There are a couple of basic kinds of hearing loss:
- Blockage-related hearing loss: If your ear canal is partly or completely obstructed, it can mimic the symptoms of hearing loss.
Debris, earwax, and tumors are some of the things that can cause a blockage.
Your hearing typically goes back to normal after the blockage is eliminated, and that’s the good news. - Hearing loss due to damage: But there’s another, more widespread type of hearing loss that makes up approximately 90 percent of hearing loss.
Known clinically as sensorineural hearing loss, this form of hearing loss is usually permanent.
Here’s the way it works: tiny hairs in your ear move when hit with moving air (sound waves).
Your brain changes these vibrations into auditory signals that are perceived by you as sound.
But your hearing can, over time, be permanently harmed by loud noises.
Damage to the inner ear or nerve can also trigger sensorineural hearing loss.
In certain instances of severe hearing loss, a cochlear implant may be able to improve hearing function.
A hearing test can assist in identifying if hearing aids would improve your hearing ability.
Solutions for Enhancing Your Hearing
There is currently no cure for sensorineural hearing loss.
Treatment for your hearing loss might, however, be an option.
The following are some ways that getting the right treatment can help you:
- Make sure your general quality of life is unaltered or remains high.
- Effectively deal with any of the symptoms of hearing loss you may be experiencing.
- Protect your remaining hearing to prevent added damage.
- Maintain connections and community participation to prevent feelings of isolation and disconnection.
- Prevent cognitive degeneration.
The kind of treatment you obtain for your hearing loss will differ depending on the extent of the problem.
A frequently encouraged and rather straightforward solution is the use of hearing aids.
What Role do Hearing Aids Play in Managing Hearing Loss?
Individuals who have hearing loss can use hearing aids to help them perceive sounds, allowing them to work as efficiently as they can.
Tiredness is the result when the brain strains to hear.
As scientists acquire more knowledge, they have identified a more significant threat of mental decline with a persistent lack of cognitive stimulation.
Your mental function can begin to be recovered by utilizing hearing aids because they let your ears hear again.
As a matter of fact, using hearing aids has been shown to slow down cognitive decline by as much as 75%.
Contemporary hearing aids will also allow you to focus on what you want to hear while tuning out background sounds.
The Best Protection is Prevention
Preserving your hearing is essential because once it’s gone, it’s usually irretrievable. Certainly, if you get something stuck in your ear canal, you can most likely have it cleared.
But that doesn’t decrease the danger posed by loud noises that you might not believe to be loud enough to be all that harmful.
That’s why making the effort to safeguard your ears is a good idea.
If you are ever diagnosed with hearing loss later in life, you will have more treatment possibilities if you take measures to protect your hearing now.
Receiving treatment can enable you to lead a fulfilling life, even if complete recovery is not achievable.
To determine what your best option is, make an appointment with our hearing care experts.