Is Hearing Loss Curable?

Older man staring out of the window wondering is his hearing will come back

How Your Body Rebounds From Injury and Sickness

The human body can generally repair scratches, cuts, and fractured bones, though some injuries take longer than others.
Regrettably, there is no fix for the delicate hair cells in your ears once they are damaged.
At least thus far.
Animals can heal damage to the hair cells in their ears and get their hearing back, but people don’t possess that ability (though scientists are tackling it).
If you damage the hearing nerves or the little hairs, you could experience irreversible hearing loss.

When is Hearing Loss Irreversible?

The first thing you think about when you find out you have hearing loss is whether it will come back.
Whether it will or not depends on a variety of factors.

Two principal types of hearing loss:

  • Obstruction-based loss of hearing: When there’s something blocking your ear canal, you can experience all the symptoms of hearing loss.
    Debris, earwax, and growths are a few of the things that can cause a blockage.
    The good news is, your hearing typically bounces back when the obstruction is cleared away.
  • Damage-related hearing loss: A more common form of hearing loss, responsible for around 90 percent of all instances, is caused by damage instead of other factors.
    Known clinically as sensorineural hearing loss, this type of hearing loss is usually permanent.
    Here’s the way it works: tiny hairs in your ear vibrate when hit with moving air (sound waves).
    Your brain changes these vibrations into auditory signals that are heard by you as sound.
    But your hearing can, over time, be permanently harmed by loud noises.
    Injury to the inner ear or nerve can also trigger sensorineural hearing loss.
    In some cases of extreme hearing loss, a cochlear implant may have the ability to enhance hearing function.

A hearing assessment will help you identify whether hearing aids will help enhance your hearing.

Treatment of Hearing Loss

There is currently no cure for sensorineural hearing loss.
Treatment for your hearing loss may, however, be a possibility.
The following are a few ways that obtaining the proper treatment can help you:

  • Ensure your general quality of life is unaffected or remains high.
  • Effectively address any symptoms of hearing loss that you might be experiencing.
  • Protect your remaining hearing to stop further damage.
  • Keep solitude away by staying socially active.
  • Stop mental decline.

The kind of treatment you receive for your hearing loss will differ depending on the severity of the issue.
One of the most prevalent treatment solutions is quite simple: hearing aids.

What Role do Hearing Aids Play in Managing Hearing Impairment?

Individuals who have hearing loss can use hearing aids to help them perceive sounds, allowing them to work as efficiently as possible.
Tiredness occurs when the brain has to work harder to process sound.
As researchers develop more knowledge, they have identified a more significant danger of mental decline with a consistent lack of cognitive input.
Hearing aids help you recover your mental function by allowing your ears to hear once more.
As a matter of fact, using hearing aids has been shown to diminish mental decline by as much as 75%.
Modern hearing aids will also allow you to focus on what you want to hear while tuning out background sounds.

The Best Defense is Prevention

If you take away one thing from this little lesson, hopefully, it’s this: you should safeguard the hearing you have because you can’t depend on recovering from hearing loss. Certainly, if you get something stuck in your ear canal, you can most likely have it removed.
But that doesn’t reduce the danger posed by loud noises that you might not believe to be loud enough to be all that hazardous.
That’s why making the effort to protect your ears is a smart plan.
If you are ever diagnosed with hearing loss in the future, you will have more treatment options if you take steps to safeguard your hearing now.
Receiving treatment can allow you to live a fulfilling life, even if complete recovery is not achievable.
Speak with our expert audiologist to discover the most suitable solution for your unique hearing requirements.

The site information is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. To receive personalized advice or treatment, schedule an appointment.