What is ‘HEARING IMPAIRMENT’?

Hearing impairment is the inability of an individual to hear sounds adequately. This may be due to damage or disease to any part of the hearing system or improper development in fetal state.

Sense of hearing is an important link in the chain of effective communication and plays a significant role in our social and emotional well being. Millions of people worldwide are faced with hearing problems, only a minority wear hearing aids or even visit an audiologist. Hearing loss affects all age groups, without discrimination. Physiological changes that take place in hearing loss and is one of the most common causes for it.

Hearing loss does not only mean the inability to hear loud enough, it may also means a ‘discrimination loss’ i.e. difficulty in understanding and differentiating various speech sounds. Untreated hearing loss or delay in treating hearing loss can have far reaching effects like poor or no language development and learning disability in children.

Hearing problems often make it difficult to “keep up”, which can lead to a sense of isolation, fatigue and loneliness. Poor language acquisition due to hearing loss can often be misinterpreted as a lack of intelligence or mental deficiency usually affecting life at school and work, as well as social interaction. Hearing loss invariably affects quality of life.

What are different Types of Hearing Loss and its respective Causes?

There are 3 types of hearing loss
1) Conductive hearing loss
2) Sensory neural hearing loss and
3) Mixed hearing loss.

CAUSES OF HEARING LOSS:

Causes Of Conductive Loss:

Conductive hearing loss is so called as it prevents the efficient conduction of sound to the inner ear. Conductive loss is the generic term for a decrease in hearing levels as a result of any pathology of the outer ear or middle ear systems. The specific site of the disorder can be in the ear canal, middle ear cavity, tympanic membrane, ossicles (3 small bones of the middle ear) or Eustachian tube, or can co-exists in several of these areas.

Conductive hearing loss generally produces a mild to moderate level of hearing loss. It can affect hearing in all frequencies relatively equally or be present just for the lower frequency sounds. Generally, persons with conductive loss benefit from medicine or surgery. If surgery is not possible, Hearing Aids are prescribed for benefit of reduced hearing.

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Causes Of Sensory Neural Hearing Loss:

The main cause of Sensory Neural loss is aging process. Usually referred to as Age induced hearing loss or ‘Presbycusis’. The impairment originates due to damage to the sensory cells of the ‘cochlea’ of the inner ear.

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Presbycusis (Acquired Sensory Neural Loss due to aging or Age induced hearing loss) :

A gradual decline in hearing sensitivity sets in around the age of 45 – 50 that a noticeable change in hearing sensitivity for speech and environmental sound occurs, Sound is perceived but the sound Discrimination is difficult (what exactly is being said is not clear). Talk on one to one basis is perhaps understood but when it comes to “one is to many” that is in group situation it is difficult to recognize what has been just said as well as to locate the sound i.e. who said it from the group.

Age induced hearing loss has an individual progression, which means that some may experience hearing problems quite early in life, while others experience it later in life. Loss in hearing sensitivity is most often bilateral, symmetric, progressive & sensorineural in nature. It is generally greatest in the higher frequencies, but present across all frequencies.

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What is the treatment for different types of hearing loss?

Treatment for Conductive Loss:

In most of the cases it can be treated either medically or surgically. In most cases, hearing aid is beneficial. Hearing aids can be used to rectify problems in the middle ear that cannot be alleviated through surgery.

Treatment for Sensorineural Loss:

Most of such cases whether since birth or acquired in adulthood or due to aging process – all cases benefit very well with Hearing Aid. The hearing aid amplifies sounds in frequencies where the hearing loss is prevalent.

In some cases where the loss is due to impairment in the cochlea (Inner Ear Organ) Cochlear Implant (Expensive Inner Ear Surgery) could be suggested. Rare cause of SN loss is due to damage to the auditory nerve fibers of the VIIIth cranial nerve including acoustic neuroma of the VIIIth Nerve. In which case the treatment is surgical removal of the neuroma following the same the suffering individual may have to be fitted with CROS hearing aid.

Mixed Hearing loss

Mixed loss is one which contains elements from both the hearing loss referred above. When there are problems in the middle and inner ear, a mixed hearing impairment is the result. Because mixed hearing loss involves both sensorineural and conductive hearing loss, treatment options from hearing aids to surgery depends on the nature of the impairment and the symptoms experienced, but most cases benefit by wearing Hearing Aids.