What causes hearing loss?
The realisation that you are beginning to experience hearing loss, or deafness, can be devastating and scary. Many people feel isolated and afraid to let their loved ones know the full extent of what is going on. Or, are reluctant to discover the full extent of the problem themselves.
What you may not realise is that hearing loss, to varying degrees, is incredibly common. People of all ages and from all walks of life are affected by it and I feel that it’s something we should talk about more.
Like with many things, understanding what is happening to you and why, is key to reducing your fears and helping you to live with your condition.
Below I’m going to look at some of the most common causes of hearing loss.
Sensorineural hearing loss
Sensorineural hearing loss is the name used to describe different types of hearing loss caused by damage to the inner ear. The most common are age-related and noise-induced.
Age-related hearing loss is due to the natural wear and tear of the tiny hairs, the cilia, in your inner ear. The hairs at the entrance of the inner ear begin to deteriorate first, which we refer to as the doormat effect, and this results in a decline in your ability to hear higher frequencies.
Whilst you may think the loss of higher frequencies isn’t something that will affect your day-to-day activities, unfortunately it’s this kind of loss that affects the clarity and definition of speech.
Whilst some of the causes of hearing loss below will exacerbate the damage to your cilia, age-related hearing loss happens to everyone to some degree and is a natural part of life that we all have to face.
Noise-induced hearing loss, surprise-surprise, is caused by loud noise. This can be from a one-off very loud noise, or being exposed to high levels of noise repeatedly or over a sustained period.
In fact, anything over 85db is enough to cause permanent hearing loss from one exposure and regular exposure to noise over 70db can also cause damage. To help you put this into perspective, power tools often register at around 90db and heavy traffic can register at 70db.
Loud noise also reduces your hearing through damaging the cilia and so can speed up the process of age-related hearing loss. Whilst there is no cure once the damage is done, using hearing aids to amplify the affected frequencies can help to retain hearing levels and slow further decline.
I’d love to see more people thinking about the prevention of noise-induced hearing loss as it would massively help reduce the rates of hearing loss across people from all walks of life. If you’re regularly subjected to sustained or loud noise through your job or a hobby it’s worth getting quality ear protection that has been fitted to your ear shape, as well as getting regular hearing tests. Get in touch if you’d like to know more.
Conductive hearing loss
Hearing loss can also be caused by a wide range of issues with the middle or outer ear. These causes are referred to as conductive hearing loss and are, in some cases, only temporary. I’ll cover some of the most common ones here.
Blocked ears built up of ear wax is a common and temporary cause of hearing loss. Whilst ear wax serves an important purpose in protecting the ear, if blocking the view of the eardrum it can prevent you from hearing clearly and in some cases can lead to bacterial infections.
Thankfully a build up of ear wax is usually easily treated, though it should be done by a professional. Please do not put anything in your ear yourself such as cotton buds, as this can push the ear wax further in and cause more problems.
Otitis Media is a common infection of the outer ear, which can also be chronic (when it's often referred to as swimmers’ ear). It normally occurs through the prolonged or frequent presence of moisture in the ear, which damages the ear canal.
You’ll often experience pain and redness with Otitis Media, as well as temporary hearing loss. It’s best to get treatment as early as possible with any ear infection to save yourself unnecessary suffering and to avoid permanent damage to your ear or the onset of serious conditions, such as cholesteatomas, which require surgery.
Some people develop bony growths (surfer’s ear) in their ear canal which, in some cases, can cause hearing loss. Most growths are left untreated unless they cause discomfort or majorly affect your hearing.
What to do if you think you’re experiencing hearing loss
Whilst I’ve covered some of the most common causes of hearing loss here, there are many, many more in addition. If you feel like you’re not able to hear as well as you used to, it's really important that you seek professional help as soon as possible to discover the cause. Your first point of call to do this should be visiting your GP or a certified Audiologist.
It may be that the cause of your hearing loss is something that is easily treated and the loss is reversible. And, if it’s not, help and equipment (such as hearing aids) are available that may be able to slow the decline down and help you feel like yourself again.
If you’d like to find out more about hearing loss and how to live with it, type in your email below and I’ll send future articles straight to you.