How Your Body Recovers From Injury and Illness
The physical body can typically repair scratches, cuts, and fractured bones, though some injuries take longer than others.
Unfortunately, there is no fix for the fragile hair cells in your ears once they are damaged.
Up to this time, at least.
Animals can repair damage to the cilia in their ears and get their hearing back, but human beings don’t have that ability (although scientists are working on it).
If you harm the hearing nerves or the tiny hairs, you could experience irreversible hearing loss.
At What Point Does Hearing Loss Become Irreversible?
The initial thing you consider when you discover you have hearing loss is whether it can come back.
Whether it will or not depends on a variety of things.
Two primary kinds of hearing loss:
- Obstruction-based hearing loss: When there’s something obstructing your ear canal, you can experience all of the symptoms of hearing loss.
Earwax, debris, and irregular growths can possibly block the ear canal.
Your hearing typically goes back to normal after the obstruction is eliminated, and that’s the good news. - Damage-related hearing loss: A more prevalent type of hearing loss, responsible for around 90 percent of all instances, is triggered by damage rather than other factors.
This distinct type of hearing loss, referred to as sensorineural hearing loss in medical terms, is frequently 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 transforms 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.
Damage to the inner ear or nerve can also cause sensorineural hearing loss.
A cochlear implant can help restore hearing in some instances of hearing loss, specifically in severe cases.
A hearing test will help you identify whether hearing aids will help enhance your hearing.
Solutions for Enhancing Your Hearing
There is presently no cure for sensorineural hearing loss.
But it might be possible to obtain effective treatment.
The following are a few ways that getting the proper treatment can help you:
- Maintain a good total standard of living and well-being.
- Effectively manage any of the symptoms of hearing loss you may be dealing with.
- Protect your remaining hearing to stop further damage.
- Keep isolation away by remaining socially active.
- Prevent cognitive degeneration.
This treatment can take many forms, and it’ll typically be dependent on how severe your hearing loss is.
A typically encouraged and fairly straightforward solution is the use of hearing aids.
How is Hearing Loss Treated 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.
Tiredness occurs when the brain needs to work harder to process sound.
As scientists acquire more insights, they have identified a greater threat of cognitive decline with a persistent lack of cognitive stimulation.
Your cognitive function can start to be restored by utilizing hearing aids because they help your ears hear again.
Research has revealed that wearing hearing aids can substantially slow cognitive impairment, with some research indicating a reduction of up to 75%.
Modern hearing aids enable you to focus in on particular 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 need to safeguard the hearing you have because you can’t count on recuperating from hearing loss. If an object becomes wedged in your ear canal, it can likely be safely removed.
However, this doesn’t lessen the risk posed by loud noises, which can be harmful even if they don’t seem excessively loud to you.
So taking measures to safeguard your hearing is a wise decision.
If you are ever diagnosed with hearing loss later in life, you will have more treatment possibilities if you take measures to protect your hearing today.
Receiving treatment can enable you to lead a fulfilling life, even if total recovery is not achievable.
Speak with our expert audiologist to discover the most suitable solution for your specific hearing requirements.