How Your Body Rebounds From Injury and Illness
The physical body usually has the ability to recover from cuts, scratches, and broken bones, although the healing process might differ in duration depending on the damage.
Unfortunately, there is no cure for the fragile hair cells in your ears once they become damaged.
Up to this point, at least.
Animals can heal damage to the hair cells in their ears and get their hearing back, but human beings don’t possess that ability (though scientists are tackling it).
That means you could have an irreversible loss of hearing if you damage the hearing nerve or those tiny hairs.
When is Hearing Loss Irreversible?
The first thing you consider when you discover you have hearing loss is whether it can come back.
It is uncertain if it will happen, as it depends on various elements.
There are two fundamental kinds of hearing loss:
- Blockage-related hearing loss: If your ear canal is partly or totally blocked, it can mimic 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 cleared, and that’s the good news. - Hearing loss caused by damage: But there’s another, more prevalent type of hearing loss that makes up about 90 percent of hearing loss.
Known clinically as sensorineural hearing loss, this type of hearing loss is often irreversible.
The hearing process is activated by the impact of moving air on tiny hairs in the ear which transmit sound waves to the brain.
These vibrations are then changed, 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 certain instances of severe hearing loss, a cochlear implant may be able to enhance hearing function.
A hearing assessment can assist in determining if hearing aids would enhance your hearing ability.
Solutions for Improving Your Hearing
Sensorineural hearing loss presently can’t be cured.
Treatment for your hearing loss might, however, be a possibility.
Benefits of correct treatment for your well-being:
- Ensure your general quality of life is unaffected or remains high.
- Successfully address any symptoms of hearing loss that you may be experiencing.
- Take care of your remaining hearing to prevent added damage.
- Preserve connections and community participation to avoid feelings of isolation and disconnection.
- Stop cognitive decline.
The type of treatment you receive for your hearing loss will vary depending on the extent of the problem.
A frequently recommended and rather straightforward solution is the use of hearing aids.
What Part do Hearing Aids Play in Dealing With Hearing Impairment?
Individuals who cope with hearing loss can use hearing aids to help them perceive sounds, allowing them to work as effectively as they can.
Tiredness is the outcome when the brain strains to hear.
As scientists develop more insights, they have identified a more significant danger of cognitive decline with a persistent lack of cognitive stimulation.
Hearing aids help you restore your mental function by allowing your ears to hear again.
In fact, utilizing hearing aids has been shown to slow mental decline by as much as 75%.
Modern hearing aids enable you to focus in on particular sounds you want to hear while minimizing background noise.
Prevention is The Best Protection
Maintaining your hearing is crucial as once it’s lost, it’s often permanent. If an object becomes lodged in your ear canal, it can usually be safely removed.
But that doesn’t reduce the danger posed by loud sounds that you might not believe to be loud enough to be all that harmful.
So taking steps to safeguard your hearing is a good plan.
The better you protect your hearing today, the more treatment potential you’ll have when and if you are inevitably diagnosed with hearing loss.
Receiving treatment can allow you to live a fulfilling life, even if complete recovery is not achievable.
To determine what your best option is, make an appointment with our hearing care specialist.