Causes, Symptoms And Management Of Hearing Loss

Causes Of Hearing Loss

1. Age-associated degeneration: this is the most common cause for hearing loss and is attributed to a number of factors ranging from genetic and environmental to even physiologic.
2. Noise-associated hearing loss: It is no coincidence that people who are occupationally exposed to high noises have a much higher rate of hearing loss than other groups.
3. Side effects of medication: A large number of medications have been associated with hearing loss and this is something that should be looked at by your doctor if the hearing loss appears soon after a new medication has been started.
4. Systemic diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure, bone metabolic disorders and others can cause hearing loss by affecting the blood supply or nerve function of the ears.
5. Trauma: Physical trauma to the ears can cause sudden hearing loss and can be extremely difficult or even impossible to repair.  

Symptoms Of Hearing loss

The symptoms of hearing loss will be difficult to pick up in the initial stages and are missed by most patients. Some things to look out for are:

1. You tend to hear the background noise but are not able to discern conversations that are occurring over it.
2. Talking on the phone seems more difficult as the voices seem to be muffled.
3. People with hearing loss will misunderstand what is being said for other similar sounding words.
4. You may have to ask people to repeat themselves often enough for them to start getting irritated.
5. The volume of the TV always seems a little too low to you even when others are able to hear it just fine.

Managing Hearing Loss

Once you have been diagnosed with hearing loss, your doctor will attempt to classify the severity of the hearing loss by conducting some tests and isolate the reason for this hearing loss as well.

Some causes like infection, hearing loss due to a medicinal side effect, caused due to osteosclerosis are amenable to treatment and almost a complete reversal can be expected. The treatment may involve es antibiotic treatment, removal of the offending medicine and surgery but the prognosis is good for the patients.

However, with most of the other causes, there is a high likelihood of the patient coming away with some level of permanent hearing loss. Hearing aids are a popular and effective method to deal with permanent hearing loss. It should be mentioned that these aids sometimes distort what is being said and so the patient can take a little time to get used to them.

There are other technologies that are emerging which help you focus on a particular thing to listen to while drowning out other noise. Cochlear implants are also rising in popularity as a way to combat permanent hearing loss.

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In Conclusion...

Our normal conversation levels are around 60 decibels, and a single exposure to noises around 85-110 decibels can damage our ears permanently. It is imperative that more people be made aware of this and proper warnings be given to people attending high decibel events. Wearing ear plugs to your next concert may be something that should seriously consider.