The Healing Ability of Your Body
The human body can typically repair scratches, cuts, and broken bones, although some injuries take longer than others.
Regrettably, there is no fix for the delicate hair cells in your ears once they are damaged.
Up to this point, at least.
Animals can repair damage to the hair cells in their ears and get their hearing back, but humans don’t possess that ability (though scientists are working on it).
That means you might have an irreversible loss of hearing if you damage the hearing nerve or those little hairs.
When is Hearing Loss Irreversible?
The initial thing you think about when you find out you have hearing loss is whether it will come back.
Whether it will or not is dependent on a variety of things.
There are two basic forms of hearing loss:
- Blockage-related hearing impairment: If your ear canal is partially or entirely blocked, it can mimic the symptoms of hearing loss.
Debris, earwax, and tumors are some of the things that can cause an obstruction.
The good news is, your hearing normally bounces back as soon as the obstruction is eliminated. - Hearing loss caused by damage: But there’s another, more prevalent type of hearing loss that makes up about 90 percent of hearing loss.
Clinically known as sensorineural hearing loss, this type of hearing loss is usually irreversible.
Here’s how it works: tiny hairs in your ear move when struck with moving air (sound waves).
Your brain changes these vibrations into auditory signals that are heard 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 lead to sensorineural hearing loss.
A cochlear implant can help bring back hearing in some cases of hearing loss, particularly in severe cases.
A hearing test can help in identifying if hearing aids would enhance your hearing ability.
Treatment of Hearing Loss
Sensorineural hearing loss currently can’t be cured.
Treatment for your hearing loss may, however, be an option.
Advantages of proper treatment for your well-being:
- Preserve a good overall standard of living and well-being.
- Effectively address any symptoms of hearing loss that you might be experiencing.
- Preserve and protect the hearing you still have.
- Preserve relations and community participation to avoid feelings of loneliness and disconnection.
- Prevent mental degeneration.
The kind of treatment you receive for your hearing loss will differ depending on the extent of the condition.
One of the most common treatment solutions is fairly simple: hearing aids.
What Role do Hearing Aids Play in Dealing With Hearing Loss?
People who cope with hearing loss can use hearing aids to help them perceive sounds, allowing them to work as efficiently as they can.
Tiredness is the outcome when the brain struggles to hear.
Scientists have come to realize that extended mental inactivity presents a significant danger to mental health, as new discoveries clarify the importance of ongoing mental stimulation.
Hearing aids help you restore your mental function by allowing your ears to hear again.
As a matter of fact, using hearing aids has been shown to slow down mental decline by as much as 75%.
Modern hearing devices allow you to concentrate on specific sounds you want to hear while minimizing background noise.
The Best Defense is Prevention
Preserving your hearing is crucial as once it’s gone, it’s often irretrievable. Certainly, if you get something stuck in your ear canal, you can probably have it removed.
However, this doesn’t lessen the danger posed by loud sounds, which can be damaging even if they don’t seem overly loud to you.
So taking steps to protect your hearing is a good plan.
If you are ever diagnosed with hearing loss later in life, you will have more treatment possibilities if you take measures to safeguard your hearing now.
Treatment can help you live a wonderful, full life even if recovery isn’t a possibility.
To identify what your best choice is, schedule an appointment with our hearing care professionals.
