Hearing Loss
The first step in exploring hearing and treatment is education.
Understanding the signs, symptoms, preventative options, and treatment is essential for peace of mind. Hearing your best starts with education, providing you with clarity and confidence in your decisions.
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Causes of hearing loss
Hearing loss is caused by many factors, most frequently from natural aging or exposure to loud noise. The other most common causes of hearing loss are head trauma, viruses and diseases, genetics, and ototoxicity.
Things that can cause sensorineural hearing loss are:
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Aging
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Injury
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Excessive noise exposure
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Viral infections (such as measles or mumps)
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Shingles
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Ototoxic drugs (medications that damage hearing)
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Meningitis
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Diabetes
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Stroke
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High fever or elevated body temperature
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Ménière’s disease (a disorder of the inner ear that can affect hearing and balance)
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Acoustic tumors
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Heredity
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Obesity
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Smoking
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Hypertension
Things that can cause conductive hearing loss are:
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Infections of the ear canal or middle ear resulting in fluid or pus buildup
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Perforation or scarring of the eardrum
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Dislocation of the middle ear bones (ossicles)
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Foreign objects in the ear canal
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Otosclerosis (an abnormal bone growth in the middle ear)
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Abnormal growths or tumors
Symptoms of hearing loss
Hearing loss affects nearly every aspect of daily living. It can reduce your quality of life, making communication more difficult by:
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Causing misunderstandings
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Isolating you from society and loved ones
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Straining relationships with your family and friends
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Heightening stress
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Triggering unnecessary fatigue
Hearing loss and Alzheimers
The National Council for Better Hearing warns that untreated hearing loss can have many symptomatic similarities to Alzheimer’s disease. In fact, unbeknownst to many, hearing loss may be a common cause. Recent studies conducted at the University of Washington’s Department of Medicine found that out of 100 patients with Alzheimer’s, 83 patients had a hearing loss. Once fit with hearing aids, a third of those patients were classified with a less severe case of dementia.
Hearing loss plays a large role in brain function. For those with untreated hearing losses, the reduced ability to hear every day sounds may lead to reduced sound processing activity by the brain. As the brain receives fewer sounds, it becomes less active in processing a person’s surroundings and recognizing speech.
Signs to look out for:
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Asking others to repeat themselves
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Having trouble understanding conversation in noisy places
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Having trouble hearing women’s and children’s voices
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Turning up the television or radio volume to levels others find too loud
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Feeling like other people are always mumbling
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Feeling more irritable or depressed
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Having trouble hearing on the telephone
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Avoiding social situations that were once enjoyable
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Having difficulty following a fast-moving conversation
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Missing important information in meetings
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Being told by others that you have hearing loss
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Memory problems and other cognitive effects
Degrees of hearing loss
There are four clinically labeled degrees of hearing loss:
Mild
If you have mild hearing loss, you may hear some speech sounds but will have difficulty with soft sounds.
Moderate
If you have moderate hearing loss, you’ll struggle to hear/understand speech when someone is talking at a normal level.
Severe
If you have severe hearing loss, you will hear little-to-no speech when spoken at normal levels and hear only some loud sounds.
Profound
If you have profound hearing loss, you may only hear very loud sounds and no speech at all.
Types of hearing loss
Sensorineural hearing loss
Sensorineural hearing loss is the most common type of hearing loss. It occurs when the inner ear nerves and hair cells are damaged — perhaps due to age, noise damage, or something else. Sensorineural hearing loss impacts the pathways from your inner ear to your brain. Most times, sensorineural hearing loss cannot be corrected medically or surgically, but can be treated and helped with the use of hearing aids.
Conductive hearing loss
Conductive hearing loss is typically the result of obstructions in the outer or middle ear — perhaps due to fluid, tumors, earwax, or even ear formation. This obstruction prevents sound from getting to the inner ear. Conductive hearing loss can often be treated surgically or with medicine.
Mixed hearing loss
Mixed hearing loss is just what it sounds like — a combination of sensorineural and conductive hearing loss.