How Your Body Rebounds From Injury and Illness
The human body can usually repair scratches, cuts, and fractured bones, although some injuries take longer than others.
Unfortunately, there is no fix for the delicate hair cells in your ears once they become damaged.
Up to this time, at least.
Animals have the capacity to renew damaged cilia in their ears, recovering their hearing, a trait that researchers are currently trying to replicate in people.
That means you might have an irreversible loss of hearing if you damage the hearing nerve or those little hairs.
At What Point Does Hearing Loss Become Irreversible?
The initial thing you consider when you learn you have hearing loss is whether it will return.
Whether it will or not is dependent on a variety of factors.
Two primary kinds of hearing loss:
- Obstruction-based loss of hearing: When there’s something obstructing your ear canal, you can experience all the symptoms of hearing loss.
Earwax, debris, and abnormal growths can possibly obstruct the ear canal.
Your hearing generally goes back to normal after the blockage is eliminated, and that’s the good news. - Damage-related hearing loss: A more prevalent form of hearing impairment, responsible for around 90 percent of all cases, is triggered by damage instead of other factors.
This specific type of hearing loss, referred to as sensorineural hearing loss in medical terms, is typically permanent.
The hearing process is triggered by the impact of moving air on tiny hairs in the ear which transmit sound waves to the brain.
These vibrations are then modified, by your brain, into signals that you hear as sound.
But your hearing can, over time, be permanently harmed by loud noises.
Sensorineural hearing loss can also be caused by injury to the inner ear or nerve.
In some instances of severe hearing loss, a cochlear implant might have the ability to improve hearing function.
A hearing exam 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 an option.
The following are some ways that obtaining the proper treatment can help you:
- Ensure your overall quality of life is unaffected or remains high.
- Effectively deal with any of the symptoms of hearing loss you may be dealing with.
- Take care of your remaining hearing to avoid additional damage.
- Keep isolation away by continuing to be socially engaged.
- Prevent mental decline.
This treatment can take many forms, and it’ll typically be dependent on how extreme your hearing loss is.
One of the most prevalent treatment options is fairly simple: hearing aids.
How is Hearing Loss Managed by Hearing Aids
Individuals going through hearing loss can make use of hearing aids to detect sounds which will allow them to function more effectively.
Fatigue happens when the brain needs to work overtime to process sound.
Scientists have come to realize that prolonged mental inactivity poses a significant danger to cognitive health, as new findings clarify the importance of continuous mental stimulation.
Hearing aids help you restore your mental function by allowing your ears to hear again.
Studies have shown that wearing hearing aids can significantly slow cognitive impairment, with some studies suggesting a decrease of up to 75%.
Contemporary hearing aids will also allow you to focus on what you want to hear while tuning out background sounds.
Prevention is The Best Protection
If you take away one thing from this article, hopefully, it’s this: you need to safeguard the hearing you have because you can’t count on recuperating from hearing loss. Certainly, if you get something stuck in your ear canal, you can most likely have it removed.
But that doesn’t lessen the danger posed by loud noises that you may not think are loud enough to be all that harmful.
So taking measures to safeguard your hearing is a good plan.
The better you safeguard 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 great, full life even if recovery isn’t possible.
Speak with our professional audiologist to determine the most suitable solution for your unique hearing needs.
