Hearing Impairments – Causes, Precautions & Treatments.
Hearing Impairments – Causes, Precautions & Treatments.
We all start getting old after a certain period of time. And with old age comes a lot of problems, specially health-related problems. Once a person hits his or her 60s, they start having all these problems. Losing hearing abilities is one of such problems that elderly people face. There are quite a few factors that lead to the loss of hearing abilities. Let’s have a look at those factors!
- Sudden loud noises – There are many situations when we all get to hear unexpected loud sounds. Being younger, it doesn’t affect much, but as for old people, they can prove to be dangerous. Any kind of sudden loud noise can lead to damage of sensory hair cells that enable us to hear things
- Long term ailments – In today’s world, half of the population is affected by diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes, different kind of heart problems etc. This kind of chronic issues can also be the cause of the loss of hearing abilities.
- Abnormalities – Sometimes people lose their hearing abilities despite their age! Even if they are not old, a flaw in the outer ear or middle ear. Due to some malfunction of the eardrum or the three tiny bones that are responsible for carrying sound waves from the eardrum to the inner ear.
These are a few factors that can lead to hearing impairment. Preventing hearing loss might not be fully possible, but we all can definitely follow these precautions to avoid losing our hearing ability.
- Avoid persistently loud noises – Try and avoid going or staying near areas that produce continuous loud sounds. The longer you hear such loud noises, the more is the chance of losing your hearing ability.
- Minimize the use of earphones – In today’s world, people irrespective of their age, use earphones to listen to songs or talk with their near & dear ones. But elongated time span of plugging the earphones with high volume can induce the loss of hearing ability.
- Put on ear muffs or noise cancellers – If you must stay or work at a place that has noise or sound that goes up to 85 decibels or up then try & put on ear muffs or noise cancellers that will help you to avoid loud noises when produced.
After all the precautions, if you still get any kind of hearing problems then there are some devices or treatments that you can have that will help you to hear sounds like before, if not same but more or less.
- Hearing aids – This particular device is used by almost everyone who suffers from hearing impairments. This device is generally put inside or behind the ear, & it allows one to hear sounds much louder. Consult your ENT doctor before you go for hearing aids.
- Cochlear implantations – This kind of implants are generally used by deaf people or people who hear very little. The outer part of the device is put behind the ear & the internal device is placed underneath your skin through surgery.
- Lip reading – This process is used mainly by deaf people. Special trained people train these deaf people to read the lips of the person who’s speaking or the movements of the mouth.
