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There are varying types, causes and degrees of hearing loss ranging from mild to profound.
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Find out what to look for and some practical tips you can follow to protect your hearing.
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If you believe your or a loved one are experiencing hearing loss answer these 7 questions to find out.
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Understanding Hearing Loss
Deafness can be simply defined as the inability to hear.
Hearing impairment may be more specifically described according to its degree:
Hearing losses are also generally categorised according to whereabouts along the hearing ‘pathway’ they occur.
A conductive loss occurs when something interferes with sound travelling between the outer and inner ears (eg, infection). These are usually medically or surgically treatable.
A sensorineural loss results from damage to the cochlea (the organ of hearing) or the auditory nerve. It may cause reduced sound levels, distortion and other problems. Hearing aids or cochlear implants are often recommended.
Leading Causes
The most significant cause of hearing loss in Australia is exposure to excessive noise. Hearing impairment may be more specifically described according to its degree:
Hearing loss can also be acquired through illness, accident, exposure to certain drugs and chemicals, or as part of the normal ageing process.
Causes in the outer ear
Typical problems with the outer ear include ear wax plugs and infections of the auditory canal. Usually, addressing these problems is very easy. But it is important to act quickly in order to avoid hearing damage.
Causes in the middle ear
Inflammation, fluid behind the eardrum, perforations of the eardrum and otosclerosis (a stiffening of the bones in the middle ear) are the most common problems to interfere with middle ear function. Most outer and middle ear problems can be addressed effectively with medication or surgery. If this is not possible, permanent hearing loss can be compensated with a hearing aid in most cases.
Causes in the inner ear
The majority of hearing issues concern the inner ear. The most common cause is the natural aging process. But loud noise, taking some types of medication, or skull fractures can also have a negative influence on a person’s hearing ability. These influences damage the fine hair cells and affect the transmission of signals to the auditory nerves. Usually, inner ear hearing loss cannot be addressed medically. However, this type of hearing loss can be corrected with a hearing aid in most cases.
Hearing loss caused by an outer or middle ear defect is called conductive hearing loss. Damage to the inner ear, is called sensor neural hearing loss. If both types occur together, the condition is called mixed hearing loss.
Hearing Loss Prevention
Excessive noise exposure damages the delicate hair cells in the inner ear, not dissimilar to the effect of age on the ear (accelerated “wear and tear”). This damage often results in permanent, sensor neural hearing loss and tinnitus (ringing of the ears). Hazardous noise exposures can occur on the job, but also in common recreational activities. Hearing loss prevention thus requires diligence and sensitivity to situations where hearing can be put at risk:
Warning Signs
Be alert to some of these warning signs, which could suggest that you’ve been exposed to hazardous noise:
Remember, even though you might have experienced these symptoms temporarily in the past, your hearing might not always “recover,” leaving you with a permanent and regrettable hearing problem.
What You Can do to Protect your Hearing
An Ounce of Prevention
Be alert to risks of hazardous noise in your life. Since prevention of hearing loss is so critical, make sure that your family (especially children), friends, and colleagues are aware of the hazards of noise and how they can protect themselves. Remember, one-third of permanent hearing loss is preventable with proper hearing loss prevention strategies.
Signs That You Need A Hearing Test
Some signs that you may need to have your hearing checked include:
How Is Hearing Tested?
Hearing tests check a person’s ability to hear the loudness and pitch of sounds. The softest sounds you can hear are charted on a graph (audiogram) to help pinpoint the severity and causes of hearing problems. Hearing loss is measured in decibels (dB), which measure intensity, and pitch in hertz (Hz), which measures frequency. Hearing loss is usually described as mild, moderate, severe or profound . Hearing is tested differently in children and adults.
The simplest way to test hearing is called pure tone audiometry. This involves listening to a range of beeps and whistles, called pure tones, and indicating when you can hear them.
Air conduction is when hearing is measured by pure tones played through headphones. The sounds go via the air, down the ear canal, through the middle ear and to the very delicate cochlea in the inner ear.
Bone conduction tests the sensitivity of the cochlea by placing a small vibrator on the mastoid bone behind the ear. Sounds presented this way travel through the bones of the skull to the cochlea and hearing nerves, bypassing the middle ear.
The results of both air conduction and bone conduction hearing tests are marked on an audiogram which can tell us whether the loss is sensorineural or conductive.
Tympanometry is not a hearing test, but a test of how well the middle ear system is functioning and how well the eardrum can move. A small rubber tip is placed in the ear and a little air is pumped into the outer ear canal. If there is a problem in the middle ear, it may show up on this test. The results of tympanometry can indicate the location of a blockage that is causing the hearing loss and if medical treatment will help.
Speech discrimination tests
When hearing is damaged, it is usually not just the volume or quantity of sound heard that is lost. Often the quality of the sound is also distorted. The amount of distortion can be measured using speech discrimination tests. Poor speech discrimination means that voices are distorted and not loud enough.
An audiogram is a graphic representation of your hearing ability. An Audiogram shows you and your hearing professional how well you can hear, weather it be good, or perhaps not so good. During a hearing test, your hearing is checked at different frequencies. The result is recorded as a characteristic audiogram curve.
Hearing Test for Children
Several methods can be used to test hearing, depending on a child’s age, development, and health status. That will usually involve a combination of behavioural and physiological tests.
Behavioral tests involve careful observation of a child’s behavioral response to sounds like calibrated speech and pure tones.
The behavioral response might be an infant’s eye movements, a head-turn by a toddler, placement of a game piece by a preschooler, or a hand-raise by a gradeschooler. Speech responses may involve picture identification of a word or repeating words at soft or comfortable levels. Very young children are capable of a number of behavioral tests.
If you have any concerns regarding your child‘s hearing, we strongly recommend making an appointment with a qualified audiologist.
