Characteristics of Hearing Loss
Hearing impairment or loss of hearing mainly falls into one of two main categories, which is either conductive hearing loss or sensorineural. However hearing loss can be a mixture of
these two. All of them essentially relate to the level or degree that
the ear can process sound.
As the name suggests, conductive hearing loss refers to the ability or non ability of the outer ear to conduct sound via the ear canal to the middle ear. Hearing loss due to ear wax build up or a slight infection is temporary and often clears up naturally although you may need some medication for the temporary discomfort as long as it lasts. Other causes of the reduced ability to hear include fluid in the ear, cold or flu symptoms, allergic effects, possibly a benign tumor and maybe having something stuck there or as a rsult of some kind of injury or local physical trauma.
Most times hearing loss of this sort will either clear up by itself over time, may be treated with medications or ear washing, or may be treated by surgery. Take care to get any hearing loss symptom or condition checked by a professional health practitioner before deciding on any one course of treatment.
If you or someone you know has been diagnosed with sensorineural hearing loss then the condition is a little more serious than the case above. The term ‘neural’ relates to the nerves in the ear that lead to the hearing centre in the
brain and ‘sensori’ refers to the way the nerve sensors work, or not, as the case may be.
In contrast to the outer or middle section of the human ear, if the inner, more sensitive part is damaged (that is, the cochlea or inner ear nerve pathway to the brain) the result will be permanent hearing loss. Although the degree of hearing loss may not be a complete loss the hearing left may nevertheless be of very poor quality and make it almost impossible to understand a normal conversation.
This can sometimes happen as a result of injuries received during birth or genetics or may occur as a side effect of certain medications like the regular use of aspirin or some diuretic drugs, for example. The name given to this type of hearing problem is ototoxic hearing loss. Some other causes of hearing loss include the disease, otosclerosis, the development of an acoustic neuroma (tumor on the acoustic nerve) and as a seide effect of viral meningitis. Noise induced hearing loss comes as a direct result of being exposed to high levels of noise, usually over a prolonged period of time, which increases the wear and tear on the sensitive hair cells of the cochlea.
It may come about simply as a natural part of the aging process too and in this case the degenerative loss of hearing is categorised as presbycusis.Mixed hearing loss is the result of damage to both the outer or middle ear and to the inner ear cochlea or auditory nerve at the same time.
Measuring the degree of hearing loss is usually done by testing the threshold at which you can detect sound and this is measured in decibles. Normal hearing is around the 10-15 decible range, whereas profound hearing loss would be be recorded at over 90 decibles.
More tips, advice and information about all types of hearing loss, symptoms, causes and treatment is available at www.conductivehearinglossandtreatments.com
May 20th, 2010 at 2:30 am
my uncle got stomach ulcers because he took a lot of Aspirin to take care of his high blood pressure.”~;
June 20th, 2010 at 6:14 pm
aspirin is a good anti-inflammatory still in use today. “,~
July 11th, 2010 at 12:58 pm
aspirin is great for reducing pain and inflammation just be careful with overdose though:.:
August 29th, 2010 at 6:13 pm
aspirin is one of the safest anti-inflammatories that you can use for lots of things.”;