How Your Body Rebounds From Injury and Illness
The physical body typically has the ability to recuperate from cuts, scrapes, and broken bones, although the recovery process could differ in duration depending on the damage.
But you’re out of luck when it concerns repairing the tiny little hairs in your ears.
Up to this point, at least.
Animals have the capacity to renew damaged cilia in their ears, recovering their hearing, a characteristic that researchers are presently making an effort to replicate in people.
That means you might have an irreversible loss of hearing if you damage the hearing nerve or those tiny hairs.
When is Hearing Loss Irreversible?
Upon identifying hearing loss, the initial concern that frequently arises is whether the hearing will be recovered.
Whether it will or not depends on a variety of things.
Two principal kinds of hearing loss:
- Blockage-related hearing loss: If your ear canal is partly or totally blocked, it can mirror the symptoms of hearing loss.
Earwax, debris, and irregular growths can possibly block the ear canal.
Your hearing typically returns to normal after the obstruction is eliminated, and that’s the good news. - Damage-related hearing loss: A more prevalent form of hearing impairment, responsible for roughly 90 percent of all instances, is caused by damage instead of other variables.
This distinct type of hearing loss, known as sensorineural hearing loss in medical terms, is frequently 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.
Your brain changes these vibrations into auditory signals that are perceived by you as sound.
But your hearing can, over time, be permanently harmed by loud noises.
Injury to the inner ear or nerve can also trigger sensorineural hearing loss.
In certain instances of severe hearing loss, a cochlear implant might be able to enhance hearing function.
A hearing examination can help in determining if hearing aids would improve your ability to hear.
Treatment of Hearing Loss
There is presently no cure for sensorineural hearing loss.
Treatment for your hearing loss may, however, be an option.
The following are some ways that getting the proper treatment can help you:
- Make sure your general quality of life is unaffected or remains high.
- Effectively manage any symptoms of hearing loss that you might be experiencing.
- Preserve and protect the hearing you still have.
- Maintain relations and community involvement to avoid feelings of isolation and disconnection.
- Prevent cognitive degeneration.
The form of treatment you get for your hearing loss will vary depending on the severity of the condition.
One of the most common treatment options is fairly simple: hearing aids.
What Role do Hearing Aids Play in Managing Hearing Impairment?
People who cope with hearing loss can use hearing aids to help them perceive sounds, allowing them to work as effectively as possible.
Tiredness is the consequence when the brain strains to hear.
Researchers have come to recognize that extended mental inactivity poses a significant risk to cognitive health, as new findings shed light on the importance of continuous mental stimulation.
Your mental function can start to be restored by utilizing hearing aids because they let your ears hear again.
In fact, utilizing hearing aids has been shown to slow mental decline by as much as 75%.
Contemporary hearing aids will also allow you to pay attention to what you want to hear while tuning out background sounds.
The Best Protection is Prevention
If you take away one thing from this little lesson, hopefully, it’s this: you should protect the hearing you have because you can’t depend on recuperating from hearing loss. If an object becomes wedged in your ear canal, it can usually be safely removed.
But that doesn’t decrease the danger posed by loud noises that you might not believe to be loud enough to be all that hazardous.
That’s why making the effort to safeguard your ears is a smart plan.
If you are ever diagnosed with hearing loss in the future, you will have more treatment options if you take steps to safeguard your hearing now.
Getting treatment can allow you to live a fulfilling life, even if complete recovery is not achievable.
Speak with our professional audiologist to discover the most practical solution for your specific hearing needs.