Hearing Loss Treatment in C-scheme, Jaipur

Hearing loss is a common complication seen in adults or older people. Extreme noise and earwax can contribute to hearing loss or damage the cells in the inner ear. Some of the common symptoms of Hearing loss include conversation withdrawal, difficulty in hearing the words as opposed to the background noise, or frequently asking the person to repeat the words loudly and clearly.

What Is Hearing Loss?

Hearing loss occurs when the part of the brain that controls the hearing doesn’t respond or there is an obstacle with one or more parts of the ear.

The ear consists of three areas: Outer, Inner, and Middle ear. Sound waves run through a passage from the outer ear which leads to the inner ears producing vibrations in the eardrum. Before reaching the inner ear, the vibrations are amplified by three bones in the middle ear. There are thousands of hairs attached to the nerve cells that translate the vibration into electrical signals. These signals are sent to the brain which turns these signals to sound.

Hearing loss can be by birth or can develop gradually with age. It is either a total or partial hearing impairment depending on the severity.

What Are the Types of Hearing Loss?

Depending on the degree of disease and the severity, Hearing Loss can be classified into three types

• Conductive Hearing loss: The type of hearing loss that occurs in the inner or middle ear, when the vibrations are not being passed to the inner ear is called Conductive Hearing Loss. This happens when the ear canal is obstructed by foreign objects or mainly by earwax. The other factors that might cause this include ear infection, defected eardrum, middle ear space filled with fluid, impaired ossicles, or bone abnormality.
• Sensorineural Hearing Loss: The type of hearing loss is caused due to damaged hair cells in the cochlea, damage to the brain or the auditory nerve. It is the most common type of hearing loss and can be caused by ageing, disease, head injury, surgery, or vulnerability to loud noises.
• Mixed Hearing Loss: The type of hearing that occurs as a combination of both conductive and sensorineural hearing loss. This is common in people who have a long-term ear infection with damaged ossicles and eardrums.

What Are the Symptoms of Hearing Loss?

Symptoms that point towards Hearing Loss are listed below:

• Inability to understand speech
• Conversation withdrawal
• Frequently asking others to repeat the words loud and clear.
• Speech sounding muffled
• Demands raising the volume of T.V, radio, mobile or other sources
• Pain in the ear parts
• Sense of blockage
• Social isolation

What Are the Causes of Hearing Loss?

The common causes of Hearing loss include:

• Ageing
• Long exposure to loud noise
• Presbycusis (age-related hearing loss)
• Genetically inherited
• Presence of excessive earwax
• Blockage by foreign objects
• Ear Infection
• Pressured or defected eardrum
• Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs

Some of the diseases that can cause hearing loss include:

• Meningitis
• Sickle cell disease
• Arthritis
• Syphilis
• Downs syndrome
• Lyme disease
• Head Injury
• Diabetes

When to See a Doctor at Apollo Spectra, Jaipur?

Sudden difficulty in hearing that interferes with everyday activities or sudden complete loss in hearing specifically in one year requires seeing a doctor in Jaipur.

In case of any of the following levels of hearing loss, seeing a doctor at Apollo Spectra, Jaipur is recommended.

• Mild hearing loss: The people who have trouble understanding certain words due to large background noise have mild hearing loss. These people can only determine the sounds between 25 to 29 decibels.
• Moderate hearing loss: The people who require a hearing aid to follow a conversation tend to have moderate hearing loss. These people can determine sounds between 40 to 69 decibels.
• Severe hearing loss: The people who have to understand the words with sign language or lip reading despite having a hearing aid are dealing with severe hearing loss. These people can determine sounds above 70 to 89 decibels.
• Profound hearing loss: The people who cannot hear anything completely and rely on sign language, reading, writing, or lip-reading have profound hearing loss. They cannot hear any sound at any decibel level.

Request an appointment at Apollo Spectra Hospitals, Jaipur

Call 1860 500 2244 to book an appointment.

How is Hearing Loss Treated?

Several treatments are available for hearing loss that depends on the severity and cause of the underlying problem. Generally, there is no cure for people dealing with Sensorineural Hearing Loss but there are hearing aids that make the lives of people a little comfortable.

The hearing aids include wearable devices which serve the purpose of hearing. They include the following:

• In-the-canal (ITC)
• Behind the ear (BTE)
• Bone conduction
• Completely in the canal (CIC)
• Cochlear implants

Besides the hearing aids, lipreading has proven useful. It is the method to understand the speaker’s language from facial expression and lip and tongue movements.

Sign language generally involves facial expressions, body postures, and signs made with hands. This language is used by people who are dealing with Profound hearing loss.

Conclusion

Hearing loss can range from mild to profound. In the mild hearing loss, usually, the person cannot acknowledge the speech when there is a lot of noise in the background. In severe cases of hearing loss, there is little to no hearing. In such cases, the person depends on understanding the words by sign language or lip-reading.