Hearing Loss Overview

As per the National Health Interview Survey 2010, 37.1 million Americans have some degree of trouble with their hearing. Among the adult population, percentage of people with impaired hearing is 16.2%. Impaired hearing stands third in the list of common health problems in US. But how can hearing loss be defined?

Hearing loss is partial or complete impairment of sensitivity to particular audio frequencies which are otherwise audible to the others within the species. Though, it is a common problem with elderly people, but in industrialized society, populations across the ages and gender suffer from hearing impairment.

There are two types of hearing loss depending upon the cause of impairment: conductive and sensorineural. If sound is not conveyed to cochlea or inner ear due to structural deformities or abnormalities in external or middle ear, people suffer from conductive hearing loss. Common abnormalities can be chronic infection in the air canal, problems in ear drum or absence of middle ear bones.

Sensorineural hearing loss is attributed to the problems arising in cochlea or inner ear. Damaged hair cell in cochlea is another common cause. Hearing loss is a common old age problem and almost half of elderly people above 70 years of age suffer from such impairment.

Common symptoms of hearing loss are repressed hearing, poor understanding of speech, tendency to listen at louder volumes, avoiding social conversation, depression, continuous sense of roaring, ringing or buzzing sound in the ear and ear pain.

Other than age related impairment, there are other factors which can create partial or complete hearing loss. Continuous exposure to noisy environment can make the ear insensitive to certain sound frequencies. This type of hearing loss is common among industrial workers, carpenters, miners, transportation laborers etc.

Medications like certain antibiotics, aspirin, malaria-treating and chemotherapy drugs can also cause partial hearing loss. Illnesses like high blood pressure, heart problems and diabetes can lead to hearing impairment. Head trauma can cause skull fracture or ruptured eardrum, which again can cause hearing problems. Lastly, infection within the ear canal can create obstruction and hearing loss.

Depending on the degree of impairment, hearing loss can be divided into four categories: mild, moderate, severe and profound hearing loss. During mild hearing loss, the patient finds it difficult to follow each word separate from any background noise. In moderate hearing loss, the common tendency is to request for repeating speech. With severe hearing loss, people need to use an hearing aid to clearly understand speech. Profound loss means extreme impairment when people can’t hear any speech without the help of an external aid.

Treatment of hearing loss depends on the causes of impairment. In case of conductive hearing loss, common treatment is clearing the obstruction in the ear canal by surgery. Structural problems in middle ear bones can be treated too.

In case of specific illness or medicinal hearing loss, patients need to consult with their doctors. With sensorineural and conductive problem, a hearing aid can help recover hearing power to some extent. However, types of hearing aid to be used depend on the area of abnormality. In case of chronic infection in the canal, bone conduction hearing aids are helpful. Sensorineural deafness can be treated with cochlear implants.

In case of complete deafness, doctors also advice learning sign language to communicate. Sign languages are becoming standard platform for communication among deaf people without relying on technology.