How Your Body Bounces Back From Injury and Illness
The human body typically has the ability to recover from cuts, scratches, and broken bones, although the recovery process could vary in duration depending on the injury.
But you’re out of luck when it concerns restoring the little hairs in your ears.
Up to this point, at least.
Animals have the ability to renew damaged cilia in their ears, restoring their hearing, a trait that researchers are currently attempting to reproduce in people.
That means you might have a permanent loss of hearing if you damage the hearing nerve or those tiny hairs.
At What Point Does Hearing Loss Become Permanent?
Upon identifying hearing loss, the preliminary concern that often emerges is whether the hearing will be recovered.
Whether it will or not is dependent on a variety of factors.
Two primary types of hearing loss:
- Blockage-related hearing impairment: If your ear canal is partly or totally obstructed, it can mimic the symptoms of hearing loss.
Debris, earwax, and tumors are some of the things that can cause a blockage.
The good news is, your hearing typically recovers as soon as the obstruction is removed. - Damage-related hearing loss: A more prevalent type of hearing loss, responsible for roughly 90 percent of all cases, is triggered by damage instead of other factors.
This particular type of hearing loss, known as sensorineural hearing loss in scientific terms, is usually permanent.
Here’s how it works: tiny hairs in your ear vibrate when struck with moving air (sound waves).
These vibrations are then modified, 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 triggered by damage to the inner ear or nerve.
In certain instances of severe hearing loss, a cochlear implant may be able to improve hearing function.
A hearing examination will help you determine whether hearing aids will help improve your hearing.
Treatment of Hearing Loss
There is currently no cure for sensorineural hearing loss.
But it might be possible to get effective treatment.
Advantages of proper treatment for your well-being:
- Maintain a good general standard of living and well-being.
- Successfully deal with any of the symptoms of hearing loss you may be dealing with.
- Take care of your remaining hearing to stop added damage.
- Preserve connections and community involvement to prevent feelings of isolation and disconnection.
- Prevent mental decline.
This treatment can take many forms, and it’ll generally depend on how extreme your hearing loss is.
One of the most common treatment options is quite simple: hearing aids.
How is Hearing Loss Managed by Hearing Aids
Individuals going through hearing loss can utilize hearing aids to detect sounds which will allow them to function more effectively.
Tiredness happens when the brain needs to work overtime to process sound.
As scientists develop more knowledge, they have recognized a more significant danger of cognitive decline with a consistent lack of cognitive input.
Hearing aids help you restore your mental function by allowing your ears to hear once more.
As a matter of fact, utilizing hearing aids has been shown to diminish cognitive decline by as much as 75%.
Contemporary hearing aids will also allow you to focus on what you want to hear while tuning out background sounds.
The Best Protection is Prevention
If you take away one thing from this article, hopefully, it’s this: you should safeguard the hearing you have because you can’t depend on recovering from hearing loss. If an object becomes lodged in your ear canal, it can likely be safely removed.
But that doesn’t lessen the danger posed by loud sounds that you may not think are loud enough to be all that hazardous.
That’s why making the effort to safeguard your ears is a good plan.
If you are ever diagnosed with hearing loss later in life, you will have more treatment options if you take measures to protect your hearing today.
Treatment can help you live a wonderful, full life even if a cure isn’t possible.
To determine what your best choice is, make an appointment with our hearing care specialist.