The Recovery Ability of Your Body

The human body usually can heal scrapes, cuts, and broken bones, although some wounds take longer than others. But you’re out of luck when it comes to repairing the tiny little hairs in your ears. So far, at least. Though scientists are working on it, humans can’t heal the cilia in their ears in the same way animals can. That means, if you damage these hairs or the hearing nerve, you could have irreversible loss of hearing.

At What Point Does Hearing Loss Become Permanent?

The first question you think of when you learn you have hearing loss is, will I get it back? Whether it will or not depends on many factors. There are two basic types of loss of hearing:

• Obstruction based loss of hearing: You can show all the symptoms of hearing loss when there is something blocking your ear canal. Debris, earwax, and tumors are some of the things that can cause a blockage. What’s promising is that once the blockage is cleared your hearing often goes back to normal.
• Damage based hearing loss: But about 90 percent of hearing loss is accounted for by another, more common cause. Known medically as sensorineural hearing loss, this kind of hearing loss is often permanent. Here’s what occurs: there are little hairs in your ear that move when hit with moving air (sound waves). Your brain is good at turning these vibrations into the sounds you hear. But loud sounds can damage the hairs and, over time, permanently diminish your hearing. Sensorineural hearing loss can also be caused by injury to the nerve or to the inner ear. A cochlear implant may help improve hearing in some cases of hearing loss, specifically extreme cases.

Whether hearing aids will help improve your hearing can only be figured out by getting a hearing test.

Hearing Loss Treatment

So currently there’s no cure for sensorineural hearing loss. But that’s doesn’t mean you can’t get treatment for your hearing loss. As a matter of fact, getting the proper treatment for your hearing loss can help you:

• Stay involved socially, keeping isolation at bay.
• Stop mental decline.
• Ensure your overall quality of life is unaffected or remains high.
• Preserve and protect the hearing you have left.
• Cope successfully with the symptoms of hearing loss you might be suffering from.

Based on how severe your hearing loss is, this procedure can take on many forms. One of the most common treatment options is pretty simple: hearing aids.

Why Are Hearing Aids a Good Treatment for Hearing Loss?

Hearing aids help the ear with hearing loss to pick up sounds and function the best they can. When your hearing is hampered, the brain strains to hear, which can fatigue you. As scientist acquire more knowledge, they have recognized an increased danger of mental decline with a persistent lack of cognitive input. By letting your ears to hear again, hearing aids help you restore cognitive function. In fact, it has been shown that wearing hearing aids can slow cognitive decline by as much as 75%. Modern hearing aids will also help you focus on what you want to hear, and drown out background sounds.

Prevention is The Best Defense

Hopefully, if you get one thing from this information, it this: you should protect the hearing you have because you can’t depend on recovering from hearing loss. Certainly, you can have any blockages in your ear cleared. But that doesn’t mitigate the threat from loud sounds, noises you might not even consider to be loud enough to be all that harmful. That’s why it’s a good strategy to take the time to safeguard your ears. The better you protect your hearing now, the more treatment options you’ll have when and if you are eventually diagnosed with loss of hearing. Recovery likely won’t be a possibility but treatment can help you keep living a great, full life. To determine what your best option is, make an appointment with a hearing care specialist.