The Recovery Ability of Your Body

The human body commonly can heal scratches, cuts, and broken bones, even though some wounds take longer than others. But you’re out of luck when it comes to fixing the tiny little hairs in your ears. At least, so far. Animals are capable of healing damage to the cilia in their ears and recover their hearing, but humans don’t have that ability (even though scientists are working on it). That means you might have permanent hearing loss if you damage the hearing nerve or those little hairs.

When Is Hearing Loss Irreversible?

When you find out you have loss of hearing, the first thing that most people ask is will it come back? Whether it will or not depends on several factors. Basically, there are two kinds of hearing loss:

• Blockage based loss of hearing: When there’s something obstructing your ear canal, you can have all the signs of hearing loss. This blockage can be caused by a wide variety of things, from debris to earwax to tumors. What’s promising is that once the obstruction is cleared your hearing often returns to normal.
• Damage based hearing loss: But there’s another, more widespread type of hearing loss that accounts for nearly 90 percent of hearing loss. Known clinically as sensorineural hearing loss, this form of hearing loss is usually permanent. Here’s what happens: When hit by moving air (sound waves), tiny little hairs in your ears move. These vibrations are then turned, by your brain, into signals that you hear as sound. But loud noises can cause damage to the hairs and, over time, permanently diminish your hearing. Sensorineural hearing loss can also be caused by damage to the nerve or to the inner ear. A cochlear implant could help improve hearing in some cases of hearing loss, specifically extreme cases.

Whether hearing aids will help restore your hearing can only be figured out by getting a hearing exam.

Hearing Loss Treatment

Sensorineural hearing loss presently has no cure. But it may be possible to get treatment for your loss of hearing. The following are some ways that getting the right treatment can help you:

• Stop mental decline.
• Guarantee your all-around quality of life is unaffected or remains high.
• Successfully deal with any of the symptoms of hearing loss you might be suffering from.
• Stay engaged socially, keeping isolation at bay.
• Preserve and protect the hearing you have left.

This approach can have many forms, and it’ll normally depend on how extreme your hearing loss is. One of the most basic treatments is also one of the most common: hearing aids.

Why Are Hearing Aids a Good Treatment for Hearing Loss?

Hearing aids assist the ear with hearing loss to hear sounds and perform the best they can. Fatigue is the result when the brain strains to hear because hearing is hindered. As scientist gain more insights, they have recognized a greater risk of cognitive decline with a continued lack of cognitive input. Your mental function can begin to be restored by using hearing aids because they allow your ears hear again. In fact, it has been demonstrated that using hearing aids can slow cognitive decline by as much as 75%. Background noise can also be drowned out by modern hearing aids allowing you to concentrate on what you want to hear.

Prevention is The Best Protection

If you take away one thing from this little lesson, hopefully, it’s this: you can’t count on recovering from hearing loss, so instead you should concentrate on safeguarding the hearing you have. Certainly, you can have any obstruction in your ear removed. But lots of loud noises are dangerous even though you might not think they are that loud. That’s why it’s a good idea to take the time to protect your ears. If you are inevitably diagnosed with hearing loss, you will have more treatment options if you take measures today to protect your hearing. Recovery likely won’t be a possibility but treatment can help you continue living a great, full life. Make an appointment with a hearing care professional to decide what your best option is.