The Healing Capability of Your Body
The human body can usually repair scrapes, cuts, and broken bones, although some injuries take longer than others.
Sadly, there is no fix for the delicate hair cells in your ears once they are 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 possess that ability (although scientists are tackling it).
That means you may have an irreversible loss of hearing if you damage the hearing nerve or those tiny hairs.
At What Point Does Hearing Loss Become Irreversible?
The initial thing you think about when you find out you have hearing loss is whether it will come back.
Whether it will or not depends on a number of factors.
Two primary forms of hearing loss:
- Blockage-related hearing loss: If your ear canal is partly or totally obstructed, it can mimic the symptoms of hearing loss.
Earwax, debris, and irregular growths can possibly obstruct the ear canal.
Your hearing normally returns to normal after the blockage is eliminated, and that’s the good news. - Hearing loss due to damage: But there’s another, more widespread kind of hearing loss that represents around 90 percent of hearing loss.
This particular type of hearing loss, referred to as sensorineural hearing loss in medical terms, is usually irreversible.
The hearing process is activated by the impact of moving air on tiny hairs in the ear which transmit sound waves to the brain.
These vibrations are then changed, by your brain, into signals that you hear as sound.
Prolonged exposure to loud noises can, however, lead to permanent damage to your hearing.
Sensorineural hearing loss can also be caused by damage to the inner ear or nerve.
In some instances of extreme hearing loss, a cochlear implant may be able to enhance hearing function.
A hearing test can assist in determining if hearing aids would enhance your ability to hear.
Treatment of Hearing Loss
Sensorineural hearing loss currently can’t be cured.
Treatment for your hearing loss might, however, be a possibility.
Advantages of proper treatment for your well-being:
- Maintain a good overall standard of living and well-being.
- Successfully deal with any of the symptoms of hearing loss you may be experiencing.
- Preserve and safeguard the hearing you still have.
- Maintain relations and community involvement to avoid feelings of loneliness and disconnection.
- Stop cognitive decline.
This treatment can take many forms, and it’ll generally be dependent on how severe your hearing loss is.
A frequently encouraged and fairly straightforward solution is the use of hearing aids.
How is Hearing Loss Treated by Hearing Aids
Individuals going through hearing loss can utilize hearing aids to detect sounds which will allow them to function more effectively.
Fatigue is the result when the brain strains to hear.
As researchers develop more knowledge, they have identified a more significant danger of cognitive decline with a persistent lack of cognitive input.
Your cognitive function can begin to be restored by using hearing aids because they let your ears hear again.
In fact, utilizing hearing aids has been shown to diminish cognitive decline by as much as 75%.
Cutting-edge hearing aids enable you to concentrate on specific sounds you wish to hear while decreasing background noise.
Prevention is The Best Protection
If you take away one thing from this little lesson, hopefully, it’s this: you need to protect the hearing you have because you can’t count on recuperating from hearing loss. Certainly, if you get something lodged in your ear canal, you can probably have it cleared.
However, this doesn’t lessen the risk posed by high-volume noises, which can be damaging even if they don’t seem overly loud to you.
So taking measures to safeguard your hearing is a wise decision.
The better you protect your hearing now, the more treatment potential you’ll have when and if you are eventually diagnosed with hearing loss.
Treatment can help you live a wonderful, full life even if a cure isn’t a possibility.
Speak with our expert audiologist to discover the most practical solution for your specific hearing needs.