The human body is a wonderful, breathtaking, confusing, confounding piece of work, isn’t it? Scratches, cuts, and broken bones are generally no problem for the human body to heal (with a bit of time, your body can repair the giant bones in your legs and arms).
But you won’t be so lucky if the fragile hairs in your ears are damaged. At least, so far.
It doesn’t seem really fair when you can heal from considerable bone injuries but you have problems repairing tiny hairs in your ear. What’s happening there?
When is Hearing Impairment Irreversible?
So let’s have a closer look. You’re waiting in your doctor’s office and you’re absorbing the news: you’re losing your hearing. So you ask your doctor if your hearing will ever come back. And the answer is… maybe.
Dramatically speaking, it’s a little anticlimactic.
But it’s also the truth. There are two general types of hearing loss:
- Damage induced hearing loss: But there’s another, more prevalent type of hearing loss. This kind of hearing loss, called sensorineural hearing loss, is irreversible. This is how it works: inside of your ear, there are tiny hairs that vibrate when struck by sound waves. When vibrations are converted into signals, they are sent to the brain which renders them into the sounds you perceive. But over time, loud sounds can cause these hairs to be damaged to the point where treatment is needed.
- Blockage induced hearing loss: You can show every sign of hearing loss when your ear has some sort of blockage. A wide range of things, from something gross (earwax) to something frightening (a tumor), can be the cause of this blockage. Your hearing will return to normal, luckily, when the obstruction is cleared away.
So here’s the main point: you can recover from one form of hearing loss and you most likely won’t know which one you have without getting a hearing exam.
Hearing Loss Treatment
Scientists haven’t discovered a “cure” for sensorineural hearing loss but they’re working on it. But that doesn’t mean you can’t find treatment for your hearing loss. Here are a few ways that the proper treatment might help you:
- Preserve a high quality of life.
- Cope successfully with any of the symptoms of hearing loss you might be enduring.
- Avoid isolation by staying socially involved.
- Maintain and protect the hearing you still have.
- Prevent mental decline.
This treatment can take numerous forms, and it’ll normally depend on how significant your hearing loss is. Hearing aids are one of the simplest and most prevalent treatment options.
Why Are Hearing Aids a Smart Treatment For Hearing Loss?
Hearing aids can help you get back to the people and things you enjoy. They can help you hear the discussions, the phone, your television, or even just the sounds of nature. You won’t be struggling to hear so pressure will be removed from your brain.
The Best Protection is Prevention
Whether you have hearing loss now or not, you need to safeguard your hearing from loud noises and other things that can damage your hearing (like ototoxic drugs). Hearing well is essential to your overall health and well-being. Having regular hearing exams is the best way to be certain that you are safeguarding your hearing.