Common Causes Of Hearing Loss

Hearing Impairment or acute Hearing Loss is described as the decrease in the ability of the ears and its other parts to perceive as well as detect the sounds. This condition can happen either gradually or suddenly. Hearing loss is normally observed in aged people but it actually can happen to anyone regardless of race, age or sex. Hearing loss can range from being a mild to a severe hearing disorder and it can also be temporary, permanent or reversible. There are a number of different causes of hearing impairment each with its own different separate symptoms. The conditions are solely depends on what type and what part or parts of the auditory system are affected.

One of the most common types of hearing loss is called conductive hearing loss. This condition usually occurs when sound is not easily conducted through the external ear that is either outer ear or middle ear. However, this is considered as a mild type of hearing disorder since the inner ear will be able to compensate for the loss. With this type of condition there will be no apparent problems in hearing as long as the sound is loud enough and audible enough to be heard. Conductive hearing loss can even be the effect of abnormalities in the ossicles, ear canal obstruction, tympanic membrane and the superior canal dehiscence syndrome.

Another type of hearing impairment is called sensorineural hearing loss. Unlike conductive type of hearing loss, the affected part of the ear is that of the inner ear specifically the cochlea. In the affected part, there is what people call the organ of Corti that has hair cells. Indiscretion in these hair cells can commonly lead to sensorineural type of hearing loss. Another uncommon cause of sensorineural type of hearing loss is damage in the auditory nerve system. The vestibulocochular nerve or the 8th cranial nerve is responsible for receiving and interpreting sounds. In some cases of hearing loss, this nerve gets damaged which leads to the impairment of the sense of hearing. Sensorineural type of hearing loss in terms of severity can be classified as mild, moderate or severe. This type of hearing loss can become severe to a point where impairment can lead to total deafness.

Environmental Noise is one of the most common causes of acute hearing loss and is known as Noise-Induced Hearing Loss. It has been seen that long-term exposure to loud noise can be detrimental to the auditory ability of a person. In fact it has been seen that people who live near airports and freeways are more prone to suffer from hearing loss. Modern multimedia devices such as mp3 players are also known to cause acute Noise-Induced Hearing Loss. It is just because headphones and earphones remains at close proximity to the eardrums compared to the standard speakers. If exposed to these kinds of auditory devices for a long time there is a fair chance that hearing loss can occur.

Most of the people may not know that hearing loss is a genetic disorder which means that it can be inherited. This type of illness is passed through the descendants either through a recessive or dominant a gene. If the disorder involves the dominant gene, deafness can likely happen to at least one relative every generation. If the condition involves the recessive gene, then it may skip generations but certainly, the risk of acquiring it is still there.

• Felicia Byrnes
• 18/01/2009, 6:59 PM
• 0 Comments