How Your Body Recovers From Injury and Illness
The human body normally has the ability to recover from cuts, scratches, and fractured bones, although the recovery process may vary in duration depending on the damage.
Regrettably, there is no cure for the delicate hair cells in your ears once they are damaged.
Up to this point, at least.
Animals have the capability to renew damaged cilia in their ears, recovering their hearing, a characteristic that scientists are presently attempting to reproduce in people.
That means you could have an irreversible loss of hearing if you damage the hearing nerve or those tiny hairs.
At What Point Does Hearing Loss Become Irreversible?
Upon discovering hearing loss, the initial concern that often arises is whether the hearing will be recovered.
Whether it will or not depends on a number of factors.
There are a couple of basic types of hearing loss:
- Blockage-related hearing loss: If your ear canal is partially or completely blocked, it can mirror the symptoms of hearing loss.
Earwax, debris, and irregular growths can possibly block the ear canal.
The good news is, your hearing normally bounces back when the obstruction is cleared away. - Hearing loss due to damage: But there’s another, more widespread type of hearing loss that accounts for around 90 percent of hearing loss.
Known clinically as sensorineural hearing loss, this type of hearing loss is usually permanent.
Here’s how it works: tiny hairs in your ear move when struck with moving air (sound waves).
Your brain converts these vibrations into auditory signals that are heard 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 trigger sensorineural hearing loss.
In certain cases of extreme hearing loss, a cochlear implant may be able to improve hearing function.
A hearing evaluation 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.
Treatment for your hearing loss might, however, be an option.
The following are some ways that getting the correct treatment can help you:
- Preserve a good overall standard of living and well-being.
- Successfully address any symptoms of hearing loss that you may be experiencing.
- Preserve and protect the hearing you still have.
- Preserve relations and community involvement to prevent feelings of isolation and disconnection.
- Stop mental decline.
The type of treatment you get for your hearing loss will vary depending on the extent of the condition.
A typically recommended and rather straightforward strategy is the use of hearing aids.
How is Hearing Loss Treated by Hearing Aids
Individuals who cope with hearing loss can use hearing aids to help them perceive sounds, allowing them to work as efficiently as possible.
Fatigue is the outcome when the brain strains to hear.
As scientists develop more insights, they have recognized a more significant threat of mental decline with a persistent lack of cognitive input.
Your cognitive function can begin to be restored by utilizing hearing aids because they let your ears hear again.
Studies have shown that wearing hearing aids can considerably delay cognitive impairment, with some studies suggesting a reduction of up to 75%.
Contemporary hearing aids will also allow you to focus on what you want to hear while tuning out background sounds.
Prevention is The Best Protection
If you take away one thing from this little lesson, hopefully, it’s this: you should safeguard the hearing you have because you can’t depend on recuperating from hearing loss. If an object becomes lodged in your ear canal, it can likely be safely cleared out.
But that doesn’t lessen the danger posed by loud noises that you may not think are loud enough to be all that hazardous.
That’s why making the effort to protect your ears is a smart plan.
The better you safeguard your hearing now, the more treatment possibilities you’ll have when and if you are inevitably diagnosed with hearing loss.
Getting treatment can enable you to lead a fulfilling life, even if total recovery is not achievable.
Talk with our expert audiologist to discover the most suitable solution for your unique hearing requirements.