Hearing Loss

If you or a loved one are experiencing hearing loss and have yet to treat it, you are not alone. In fact, on average, people with gradual hearing loss wait almost 10 years before seeking help, wasting valuable time.

Due to the complex nature of our brains, hearing loss can also go unnoticed for many years. As our loss begins to increase, our brain simply adjusts to the fact that there is a weaker signal coming from our ears. This would be why our hearing may still seem normal to us even with the prevalence of some loss. Over time, due to further deterioration of the hearing mechanism, sounds arriving to the brain become more and more distorted thus affecting the ability to understand speech. The longer the condition goes untreated, the harder it is for hearing aids to bring back the clarity you once remember hearing.

How Hearing Works

Part of successfully correcting your hearing loss is having an understanding of how our ears and brain work together to help us hear and understand speech. Here are four of the main steps that happen when we hear:

Hearing starts when acoustic sound waves are collected by the outer ear and travel through the canal to reach the eardrum. As the acoustic sound waves stimulate the eardrum, it begins to vibrate.
Past the eardrum is the middle ear, which is an air-filled cavity containing three tiny bones called the ossicles (which are the three smallest bones in the body). These bones are attached to the eardrum, and as sounds make the eardrum vibrate, they transfer the sound to the inner ear.
In the inner ear you would find the cochlea. The cochlea is a snail-shaped organ which contains hair cells called cilia, responsible for creating neurological impulses that then travel through the auditory nerve.
The auditory nerve transmits the neurological impulses to the brain via the brain stem where sound is decoded and is recognized by the person as particular sounds.

What is Hearing Loss?

Hearing loss is the inability to hear certain sounds due to our hearing mechanism not being able to properly transmit sound to our brain. It can be congenital, hereditary, noise induced, ototoxic, or age related. Depending on the type of hearing loss, it can be more noticeable for some people in the low tones and for others in the high tones. The loss can range from mild to profound and it can be permanent or temporary.

Here at Mt Hood Hearing, we strongly believe in spending time educating our patients on hearing loss in order to help them gain a clear understanding of their condition. We feel that the more educated our patients are, the higher their success rate for hearing rehabilitation.

The improved ability to hear has a tremendous impact on the quality of life for both those with hearing loss and their loved ones. Knowing your options and the available solutions, will help you make the right choice in amplification in order to use your new hearing instruments to their full potential.

How common is hearing loss and who does it affect?

According to Harvard Medical School, hearing loss is the most common neurological disorder, affecting an estimated 360 million adults and children worldwide. Here are some general guidelines regarding the incidence of hearing loss according to the National Council on Aging and the WHO:

Hearing loss affects about 60.7 million Americans age 12 and older. About 15.5% (44.1 million) of American adults age 20 and older have some level of hearing loss.
Of people age 65 and older, 31.1% experience hearing loss, while 40.3% of adults age 75 and older experience hearing loss.
Studies show approximately 28.8 million American adults could significantly benefit from wearing a hearing aid.
Only 16% of people age 20–69 have used a hearing aid, while just 30% of those age 70 and above have done so.
By 2050, nearly 2.5 billion people are projected to have some degree of hearing loss worldwide, and at least 700 million will require hearing rehabilitation.
Hearing loss is on the rise in the United States and is expected to almost double by the year 2060.
Over 1 billion young adults are at risk of permanent, avoidable hearing loss due to unsafe listening practices.

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Types of Hearing Loss

There are 4 main types of hearing loss: Conductive, Sensori-neural, Mixed, and Congenital.

Sensori-neural hearing loss results from inner ear or auditory nerve dysfunction. Often, the cause cannot be determined, such as in the case of the aging process, but sometimes the causes are obvious as in noise-induced hearing loss. It is typically irreversible and permanent. It, too, reduces the intensity of sound, but it might also result in a lack of clarity even when sounds, particularly speech, are loud enough. The treatment for sensori-neural hearing loss is amplification through hearing aids.

Causes of Hearing Loss

The main causes of hearing loss are:

Excessive noise (Ex: Construction, Rock music, Gun shot, etc)
Aging (Presbycusis)
Infections (Otitis Media)
Injury to the head or ear
Birth defects or genetics
Ototoxic reaction to drugs or cancer treatment (Ex: Antibiotics, Chemotherapy, Radiation)

Sensory
- Genetic disorders
- Hearing loss from aging
- Medications-some antibiotics
- Cancer treatments – chemotherapy and radiation therapy
- Head trauma
- Excessive noise expose
- Diseases-sickle cell anemia
- Kidney disease
- Meniere’s syndrome
- Congenital infections-toxoplasmosis, rubella, CMV, herpes, other bacterial infections like syphilis
- Acquired infections-influenza, meningitis, labyrinthitis, mumps
Neural
- Acoustic neuroma or other tumor of or near the nerve of hearing and balance

Preventing Hearing Loss

Noise-induced hearing loss can result from a single loud noise such as a firecracker or gunshot. Hearing loss can also result from prolonged exposure to noise over a period of time. It occurs gradually and painlessly. The best way to prevent noise-induced hearing loss is to take care of your hearing by protecting your ears from loud sounds.

We should not be exposed to 85 decibels (dB) of sound for longer than eight hours a day. For every 5 dB increase in volume, the maximum recommended exposure time is cut in half.

Here are some examples of sounds represented in decibels:

Lawnmower [90 dB]
Snowmobile [100 dB]
Stereo Headphones [105-110 dB]
Car Horn [110 dB]
Jackhammer [113 dB]
Rock Concert [115-120 dB]
Jet Taking Off [130 dB]
Firearms [125-170 dB]

As you can see, there are many everyday sounds that can cause noise-induced hearing loss.

Here are some simple things you can do to protect your hearing:

Wear earplugs when you’re exposed to loud noise at work or play.
Pay attention to the noises around you. Turn down the volume on radios, TVs and stereos when you can. Whenever possible, leave noisy environments.

Alternate a noisy activity with a quiet one to give your ears a rest.

Consequences of Untreated Hearing Loss

People with untreated hearing loss can experience distorted and incomplete communication that negatively impacts their professional and personal lives, putting them at risk of isolation and withdrawal.

Studies have linked untreated hearing loss to:

Avoidance or withdrawal from social situations
Reduced alertness and increased risk to personal safety
Impaired memory and ability to learn new tasks
Irritability, negativism and anger
Fatigue, tension, stress and depression
Social rejection and loneliness
Reduced job performance and earning power
Diminished psychological and overall health

Multiple important studies have been conducted to better understand hearing loss and its relation to other serious health issues such as depression, dementia, diabetes, heart disease and fall rates in older adults. When someone experiences hearing loss at the same time as one of these health concerns, the term comorbidities is often used as it describes the presence of two or more chronic diseases or disorders affecting a person. Researchers have taken more interest in the relation between hearing loss and other comorbidities, as people who live with untreated hearing loss tend to face higher risks for other physical and cognitive issues.

Sources:
1. Dementia prevention, intervention, and care, 2017, Livingston, Gill et al., The Lancet, Volume 390, Issue 10113, 2673-2734
2.Hearing Loss in older adults affects neural systems supporting speech comprehension, J Neurosci. 2011 Aug 31;31(35):12638-43. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2559-11.2011.

Many people are aware that their hearing has deteriorated but are reluctant to seek help. Perhaps they don’t want to acknowledge the problem, are embarrassed by what they see as a weakness, or believe that they can “get by” without using a hearing aid. And, unfortunately, too many wait years, even decades, before getting treatment. But time and time again, research demonstrates the considerable negative social, psychological, cognitive and health effects of untreated hearing loss with far-reaching implications that go well beyond hearing alone.

Hearing loss is not just an ailment of old age. It can strike at any time and any age, even childhood. For the young, even a mild or moderate case of hearing loss could bring difficulty learning, developing speech and building the important interpersonal skills necessary to foster self-esteem and succeed in school and life.

Hearing Aids and hearing services serving Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington

Our office is located in SE Portland, Oregon, but we serve patients from a wide region including the Greater Portland area (Gresham, Happy Valley, Oregon City, Clackamas, Milwaukie, Beaverton, Tigard, Hillsboro) and the Greater Vancouver, WA area (Felida, Fruit Valley, Hazel Dell, Cascade Park, and Camas).

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