Have you ever seen a t-shirt advertised as “one size fits all” but when you went to try it on, you were disheartened to find that it didn’t fit at all? It’s kind of a bummer, isn’t it? There aren’t really very many “one size fits all” with anything in the real world. That’s a fact with t-shirts and it’s also relevant with medical conditions, such as hearing loss. There can be a wide variety of reasons why it occurs.
So what are the most prevalent kinds of hearing loss and what causes them? Well, that’s exactly what we intend to explore.
Hearing loss comes in different forms
Because hearing is such a complex mental and physical process, no two people’s hearing loss will be precisely the same. Maybe when you’re in a noisy restaurant you can’t hear very well, but when you’re at work, you hear fine. Or perhaps you only have trouble with high or low-pitched sounds. Your loss of hearing can take a variety of shapes.
How your hearing loss presents, in part, may be dictated by what’s causing your symptoms in the first place. Because your ear is a very complex little organ, there are any number of things that can go wrong.
How does hearing work?
It’s useful to get an idea of how hearing is supposed to work before we can determine what degree of hearing loss calls for a hearing aid. Here’s how it breaks down:
- Outer ear: This is the visible portion of the ear. It’s the initial sound receiver. Sounds are efficiently funneled into your middle ear for further processing by the shape of your outer ear.
- Middle ear: The eardrum and some tiny bones are what your middle ear is composed of (yes, you have bones in your ear, but they are admittedly very, very tiny).
- Inner ear: Your stereocilia are found hear. These fragile hairs pick up on vibrations and begin converting those vibrations into electrical signals. Your cochlea helps here, also. This electrical energy is then transmitted to your brain.
- Auditory nerve: This nerve directs these electrical signals to the brain.
- Auditory system: All of the components listed above, from your brain to your outer ear, are components of your “auditory system”. The overall hearing process depends on all of these parts working in unison with one another. Put simply, the system is interconnected, so any problem in one area will typically affect the performance of the whole system.
Types of hearing loss
There are multiple forms of hearing loss because there are multiple parts of the ear. Which form you develop will depend on the root cause.
Here are some of the most prevalent causes:
- Conductive hearing loss: When there’s a blockage somewhere in the auditory system, usually the middle or outer ear, this form of hearing loss happens. Normally, fluid or inflammation is the reason for this blockage (when you have an ear infection, for instance, this usually happens). Sometimes, conductive hearing loss can be the result of a growth in the ear canal. Once the blockage is eliminated, hearing will usually return to normal.
- Sensorineural hearing loss: When the fragile hairs that detect sound, called stereocilia, are damaged by loud noise they are usually destroyed. Usually, this is a chronic, progressive and permanent type of hearing loss. Because of this, individuals are usually encouraged to prevent this kind of hearing loss by wearing ear protection. If you have sensorineural hearing loss, it can still be managed by devices like hearing aids.
- Mixed hearing loss: It sometimes happens that someone will experience both conductive and sensorineural hearing loss simultaneously. Because the hearing loss is coming from numerous different places, this can sometimes be difficult to manage.
- Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Disorder: It’s fairly rare for somebody to develop ANSD. It takes place when the cochlea does not properly transmit sounds from your ear to your brain. A device called a cochlear implant is normally used to treat this kind of hearing loss.
Each form of hearing loss calls for a different treatment method, but the desired results are often the same: improving your hearing ability.
Hearing loss kinds have variations
And there’s more. Any of these common types of hearing loss can be categorized further (and more specifically). For example, hearing loss can also be classified as:
- Acquired hearing loss: Hearing loss that develops due to outside forces (like damage).
- Congenital hearing loss: If you’re born with hearing loss it’s known as “congenital”.
- Symmetrical or asymmetrical: This indicates whether your hearing loss is the same in both ears or unequal in both ears.
- Unilateral or bilateral hearing loss: This means you’re either experiencing hearing loss in just one ear (unilateral) or both ears (bilateral).
- Progressive or sudden: Hearing loss that slowly gets worse over time is called “progressive”. Hearing loss that appears or shows up instantly is known as “sudden”.
- Pre-lingual or post-lingual: Hearing loss is called pre-lingual when it develops before you learned to talk. Hearing loss is post-lingual when it develops after you learned to talk. This will impact the way hearing loss is addressed.
- Fluctuating or stable: If your hearing loss has a tendency to come and go, it may be referred to as fluctuating. If your hearing loss stays at approximately the same levels, it’s known as stable.
- High frequency vs. low frequency: Your hearing loss can be categorized as one or the other depending on which frequency range is getting lost.
If that seems like a lot, it’s because it is. The point is that each classification helps us more accurately and effectively treat your symptoms.
A hearing exam is in order
So how do you know what type, and which sub-type, of hearing loss you have? Self-diagnosis of hearing loss isn’t, unfortunately, something that’s at all accurate. It will be hard for you to determine, for instance, whether your cochlea is functioning correctly.
But you can get a hearing test to find out exactly what’s going on. It’s like when you have a check engine light on in your car and you take it to a qualified auto technician. We can connect you to a wide range of machines, and help identify what type of hearing loss you’re dealing with.
So the best way to understand what’s going on is to make an appointment with us as soon as you can!
References
https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/hearingloss/types.html
https://www.asha.org/public/hearing/types-of-hearing-loss/
