By: adelee adelhu
Submitted: 2010-02-17 00:01:07 | Word Count: 632
Just because a person is well advanced in years doesn't mean he or she is more likely to get inflicted with hearing loss than a child. Hearing loss is commonly very gradual and slow to unfold, as a person loses ability to hear certain sounds and frequency. Some loss of hearing cases though are serious enough to be permanent.
Hearing problems can be symptons of something else that may be less serious or more serious, therefore the most logical thing to do is getting yourself to see a doctor. A doctor will first try to determine where the hearing disorder is originating from so as to get a better understanding of the problem. After defining what the problem is can a suitable hearing treatment be used to treat the person affected.
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Not many people know this, but there are in fact different types of hearing loss and not just one kind. A person's hearing loss depends on where the hearing pathway the hearing disorder is damaging. Some types of hearing loss are more serious than others, and some are easily treated while others may be more complex.
A blockage or problem that arises from the transmission of sound from the outer ear to the inner ear along the middle ear is called conductive hearing loss. Any trouble in the outer ear canal, middle ear upto the inner ear, including the bones of the middle ear and so forth are considered forms of conductive hearing loss. Most cases of this type of hearing loss is treated successfully with medication, surgery or can be managed with hearing aids.
Besides conductive hearing loss, there is what is called sensorineural hearing loss which is exactly the opposite of the former in terms of treatability. This disorder most likely involves damage to the inner ear section where the hair cells, cochlea, nerves are located and perform crucial hearing tasks. The cochlea is very important, as it is the part of the ear that holds nerves and hair hearing cells that processes sounds.
Beside the two hearing disorders is another form called central hearing loss, where the affected area is the central nervous system. A person who has been inflicted with this type of hearing disorder cannot interpret, understand or filter and isolate many sounds at once. Unfortunately, even with all the advances of science and technology today, there is little and close to nothing that can be done to cure this problem.
A condition called functional hearing loss is a person not being able to hear because of psychological reasons. It may be out of this world, but something in the person's mind is blocking and making the person not hear things, all the while having normal hearing. The biggest challenge with this type of disorder is accurately determining it so as not to waste other forms of treatment on it.
A person has mixed hearing loss when he or she has both conductive hearing loss and sensorineural hearing impairment in the same ear. It is still pretty easy to treat the conductive hearing part of the problem. The sensorineural disorder is still the challenging one to tackle, as there is not much a doctor or really anyone can do.
Ask anyone who has hearing problems and they will be the first to tell you hearing loss can change your life. No one can really say when a medicine can be made for hearing impairment. The best way is prevention, and this is through checkups and full body examinations.
