| Medical Dictionary |
A Medical Dictionary of Medical Terminology
|
It's frustrating to be unable to hear well enough to enjoy talking with friends or family. Hearing disorders make it hard, but not impossible, to hear. They can often be helped. Deafness can keep you from hearing sound at all.
What causes hearing loss? Some possibilities are:
There are two main types of hearing loss. One happens when your inner ear or auditory nerve is damaged. This type is usually permanent. The other kind happens when sound waves cannot reach your inner ear. Earwax buildup, fluid, or a punctured eardrum can cause it. Treatment or surgery can often reverse this kind of hearing loss.
Untreated, hearing problems can get worse. If you have trouble hearing, you can get help. Possible treatments include hearing aids, cochlear implants, special training, certain medicines, and surgery.
NIH: National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
Your ear has three main parts: outer, middle and inner. You use all of them in hearing. Sound waves come in through your outer ear. They reach your middle ear, where they make your eardrum vibrate. The vibrations are transmitted through three tiny bones, called ossicles, in your middle ear. The vibrations travel to your inner ear, a snail-shaped organ. The inner ear makes the nerve impulses that are sent to the brain. Your brain recognizes them as sounds. The inner ear also controls balance.
A variety of conditions may affect your hearing or balance:
Some ear disorders can result in hearing disorders and deafness.
Many disorders can affect our ability to speak and communicate. They range from saying sounds incorrectly to being completely unable to speak or understand speech. Causes include:
Some speech and communication problems may be genetic. Often, no one knows the causes. By first grade, about 5% of children have noticeable speech disorders. Speech and language therapy can help.
NIH: National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
A cochlear implant is a small, complex electronic device that can help to provide a sense of sound. People who are profoundly deaf or severely hard-of-hearing can get help from them. The implant consists of two parts. One part sits on the outside of the body, behind the ear. A second part is surgically placed under the skin.
An implant does not restore normal hearing. It can help a person understand speech. Children and adults can benefit from them.
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
A hearing aid is a small electronic device that you wear in or behind your ear. It makes some sounds louder. A hearing aid can help people hear more in both quiet and noisy situations.
Hearing aids help people who have hearing loss from damage to the small sensory cells in the inner ear. The damage can occur as a result of disease, aging, or injury from noise or certain medicines.
There are different types of hearing aids. They differ by size, their placement on or inside the ear, and how much they amplify sound. The hearing aid that will work best for you depends on what kind of hearing loss you have and how severe it is.
If you think that you need a hearing aid, you have two different options:
NIH: National Institute of Deafness and Communication Disorders
Most children hear and listen from the moment they are born. They learn to talk by imitating the sounds around them and the voices of their parents and caregivers. But about 2 or 3 out of every 1,000 children in the United States are born deaf or hard-of-hearing. More lose their hearing later during childhood.
Babies should have a hearing screening before they are a month old. If your child has a hearing loss, it is important to consider the use of hearing devices and other communication options by age 6 months. That's because children start learning speech and language long before they talk.
Hearing problems can be temporary or permanent. Sometimes, ear infections, injuries or diseases affect hearing. If your child does not hear well, get help.
NIH: National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
Meniere's disease is a disorder of the inner ear. It can cause severe dizziness, a roaring sound in your ears called tinnitus, hearing loss that comes and goes and the feeling of ear pressure or pain. It usually affects just one ear. It is a common cause of hearing loss.
Attacks of dizziness may come on suddenly or after a short period of tinnitus or muffled hearing. Some people have single attacks of dizziness once in a while. Others may have many attacks close together over several days. Some people with Meniere's disease have "drop attacks" during which the dizziness is so bad they lose their balance and fall.
Scientists don't yet know the cause. They think that it has to do with the fluid levels or the mixing of fluids in the canals of your inner ear. Doctors diagnose it based on a physical exam and your symptoms. A hearing test can check to see how it has affected your hearing.
There is no cure. Treatments include medicines to control dizziness, limiting salt in your diet, and taking water pills. A device that fits into the outer ear and delivers air pulses to the middle ear can help. Severe cases may require surgery.
NIH: National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
Noise is all around you, from televisions and radios to lawn mowers and washing machines. Normally, you hear these sounds at safe levels that don't affect hearing. But sounds that are too loud or loud sounds over a long time are harmful. They can damage sensitive structures of the inner ear and cause noise-induced hearing loss.
More than 30 million Americans are exposed to hazardous sound levels on a regular basis. Hazardous sound levels are louder than 80 decibels. That's not as loud as traffic on a busy street. Listening to loud music, especially on headphones, is a common cause of noise-induced hearing loss. You can protect your hearing by:
NIH: National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
Tinnitus is often described as a ringing in the ears. It also can sound like roaring, clicking, hissing, or buzzing. It may be soft or loud, high pitched or low pitched. You might hear it in either one or both ears.
Millions of Americans have tinnitus. People with severe tinnitus may have trouble hearing, working or even sleeping.
Causes of tinnitus include:
Treatment depends on the cause. Treatments may include hearing aids, sound-masking devices, medicines, and ways to learn how to cope with the noise.
NIH: National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders