How Your Body Recovers From Injury and Illness
The physical body can typically heal scrapes, cuts, and broken bones, though some injuries take longer than others.
Regrettably, there is no remedy for the delicate hair cells in your ears once they are damaged.
At least so far.
Animals can repair damage to the cilia in their ears and get their hearing back, but humans don’t have that ability (though scientists are tackling it).
That means you might have a permanent loss of hearing if you damage the hearing nerve or those little hairs.
When is Hearing Loss Irreversible?
The first thing you think of when you find out you have hearing loss is whether it can return.
It is uncertain if it will happen, as it depends on numerous factors.
Two principal types of hearing loss:
- Obstruction-based hearing loss: When there’s something obstructing your ear canal, you can experience all the symptoms of hearing loss.
Earwax, debris, and abnormal growths can potentially block the ear canal.
The good news is, your hearing generally recovers once the blockage is eliminated. - Damage-related hearing loss: A more prevalent kind of hearing loss, responsible for approximately 90 percent of all cases, is caused by damage instead of other variables.
This particular form of hearing loss, known as sensorineural hearing loss in scientific terms, is typically irreversible.
The hearing process is triggered by the impact of moving air on tiny hairs in the ear which send sound waves to the brain.
Your brain changes these vibrations into auditory signals that are perceived by you as sound.
Prolonged exposure to loud noises can, however, lead to permanent damage to your hearing.
Injury to the inner ear or nerve can also lead to sensorineural hearing loss.
A cochlear implant can help reestablish hearing in some cases of hearing loss, especially in severe cases.
A hearing assessment can help in identifying if hearing aids would enhance your hearing ability.
Solutions for Enhancing Your Hearing
There is currently no cure for sensorineural hearing loss.
But it might be possible to obtain effective treatment.
The following are a number of ways that getting the proper treatment can help you:
- Maintain a good general standard of living and well-being.
- Effectively address any symptoms of hearing loss that you might be experiencing.
- Maintain and protect the hearing you still have.
- Preserve relations and community participation to prevent feelings of loneliness and solitude.
- Prevent mental decline.
This treatment can take many forms, and it’ll normally depend on how severe your hearing loss is.
A frequently recommended and rather straightforward strategy is the use of hearing aids.
How is Hearing Loss Managed by Hearing Aids
Individuals who have hearing loss can use hearing aids to help them perceive sounds, allowing them to work as efficiently as they can.
Fatigue occurs when the brain needs to work overtime to process sound.
As researchers develop more knowledge, they have recognized a greater threat of mental decline with a consistent lack of cognitive stimulation.
Your cognitive function can begin to be restored by utilizing hearing aids because they let your ears hear again.
In fact, utilizing hearing aids has been shown to slow down mental decline by as much as 75%.
Modern hearing aids enable you to focus in on specific sounds you want to hear while reducing background noise.
Prevention is The Best Defence
If you take away one thing from this little lesson, hopefully, it’s this: you should protect the hearing you have because you can’t depend on recuperating from hearing loss. Certainly, if you get something stuck in your ear canal, you can most likely have it cleared.
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.
That’s why making the effort to protect 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 safeguard your hearing today.
Getting treatment can allow you to lead a fulfilling life, even if complete recovery is not achievable.
To determine what your best choice is, make an appointment with our hearing care professionals.