Project 2: Hearing Loss

Hearing loss is becoming more common in the society that we live in with the baby boomer population getting older, elevated sound pollution and increased awareness of hearing delays. With hearing loss becoming frequent in patients it is important to have a strong understanding of the challenges they face in their everyday life. Having congenital hearing loss or rapidly deteriorating hearing can change the way you approach the world, complete everyday task and communicate with others.

There are four main types of hearing loss: auditory processing, conductive, sensorineural, and mixed. In auditory processing hearing loss, the brain has difficulty processing the information it receives from the inner ear. Conductive hearing loss occurs when the Outer or Middle ear are subjected to damage. A number of factors can yield conductive hearing loss; including problems as simple as an excess of ear wax to problems as complex as otosclerosis, which is abnormal bone growth in the ossicles. Sensorineural hearing loss typically occurs when the cochlea and/or nerve endings are damaged. Unlike conductive hearing loss, sensorineural hearing loss is almost always permanent. Over-exposure to a loud environment, or even old age, are the most common factors that lead to sensorineural hearing loss.

Hearing loss can be caused by congenital defect or acquired illness or accidents. In order to simulate people with hearing loss, I wore earplugs for 8 hours last Saturday to experience their feeling. Even though earplugs have pretty good sound insulation, my experience was still a little better than those people with hearing loss because I could hear my voice clearly when talking to others. Except this little pity, it was a special day for me. It happened from that morning.

Over 360 million people or about five percent of the world population have disabling hearing loss (Deafness). Disabling hearing loss refers to hearing loss greater than 40 decibels for adults and a hearing loss of greater than 30 decibels for children (Deafness). 40 decibels is equivalent to the tune of a refrigerator humming. Although hearing loss can be mild, moderate, severe, or profound -- there are numerous ways of improving the damaged hearing (Deafness). The most common ways are through hearing aids and cochlear implants. Cochlear implants is a type of implanted electronic hearing device; it is designed to produce hearing sensations that are useful to a person with profound nerve deafness Cochlear Implants -€“ Facts). The device is more ideal for people who cannot benefit substantially with the help of hearing aids (Cochlear Implants -€“ Facts). Today, over 219,00 people are using Cochlear Implants (Cochlear Implants, Baylor). The technology used in cochlear implants is more complex and improves hearing and communication skills drastically. Despite cochlear implants having many disadvantages, there are more benefits that will help towards improving hearing loss.

Commonly, these three categories of this spectrum contain how people often react to hearing loss, and their psychological development that subsides. Within the influence of social and personal situations such as hearing loss, the majority way of living, communication and emotional behaviors sums out a clear understanding of their lifestyle and potential. There are specific characteristics and life challenges that hard of hearing people face when trying to adapt to the hearing world. (Characteristics of Hearing Impairment)

Learning music as a student with hearing loss can be difficult just as teaching a student with hearing losses can be also. There are many children who are being diagnosed with hearing losses almost every day. In the article, “Teaching Students with Hearing Losses,” by Alice-Ann Darrow, an Irvin Cooper Professor of Music Education and Music Therapy at Florida State University, Tallahassee conveyed a message that students with hearing losses are capable of learning music. When hearing the words “hearing losses” you automatically jumped to conclusion that they can’t hear anything at all however that is wrong. Darrow stated in her article that, “Very few individuals have no hearing at all however most students who are described deaf do have some

The ear is an extraordinary human organ that many people take for granted until it doesn’t function. It is the only device that allows the human to hear sounds in their environment. The ear is made up of many parts that distinguish various sounds through different means. The ear anatomy and physiology along with how sound waves are transmitted into meaningful sounds will help one understand how hearing loss occurs.

It's typically caused by inflammation and discharge from the sinuses that puts pressure on the eardrums. In general, the condition is inconvenient, as it can be frustrating to hear the world as if listening through a seashell. Usually, hearing it restored once the infection clears up and excess fluid drains away, alleviating the pressure. However, Deaf Linx reveals that, if left untreated, a sinus infection can spread to the ears, which can not only result in even more pressure and fluid in the ears, but the infection itself can seriously damage the small bones of the middle ear. Once that happens, hearing loss for Mt. Pleasant TX patients can be

Getting older doesn’t come easy when it comes to your hearing. You can’t hear as well as you could when you were younger and that's because your ears are slowly getting destroyed. As you are getting older you may start to notice Sensorineural Hearing Loss. Sensorineural Hearing Loss is when you start to notice problems with your hearing and this is due to problems in your inner ear. This is also known as nerve - related hearing loss.

If the ear drum and middle ear are functioning properly, patients may benefit from a cochlear implant - a thin electrode is inserted in the cochlea, it stimulates electricity through a tiny microprocessor which is placed under behind the ear, under the skin. 3) Mixed hearing loss. This is a combination of conductive and sensorineural hearing loss. Long-term ear infections can damage both the ear drum as well as the ossicles. Sometimes, surgical intervention may restore hearing, but it does not always work.” (Nordqvist, C. (2015, November 10). “Deafness and Hearing Loss: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatments.” Medical News Today. Retrieved from http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/249285.php). From this article, it is clear what causes deafness and hearing loss weather it’s genetics or sustained

Gradual hearing loss can affect people of all ages varying from mild to profound. Hearing loss is a sudden or gradual decrease in how well you can hear. Depending on the cause, it can be mild or severe, temporary or permanent. Hearing loss is an invisible condition; we cannot see hearing loss, only its effects. Because the presence of a hearing loss is not visible, these effects may be attributed to aloofness, confusion, or personality changes. In adults, the most common causes of hearing loss are noise and aging. There is a strong relationship between age and reported hearing loss.

Deafness is very different to people’s general perception of what it actually is. The most common view is that it is a complete loss of hearing however deafness is defined as the lack or loss of the ability to hear. You can either be born deaf or gradually lose the ability to hear later on in life (Presbycusis). Pre natal or congenital causes of deafness may be due to a specific X chromosome being passed on through generations of families even though there may be no previous history of deafness in the family. Deafness at birth can also be caused by illness during pregnancy such as herpes, rubella or even toxoplasmosis.

Noise-induced hearing loss is the result of the destruction of the hair cells of corti within the cochlea of the inner ear. The hair cells of the corti are initially damaged by chronic exposure to loud noise; these hair cells are responsible for high frequency sound. Chronic exposure to excessive noise could result in impaired transmission of both low and high frequency sounds to the brain. An average human being is born with 16 000 hair cells; up to 30-50% of this cells can be damaged before any measurable level of hearing loss can be detected. There are difficulties in detecting the initial stages of noise induced hearing loss. Hearing loss because of hair cells damage is not reversible and it cannot be corrected by the use of hearing aid (Daniel,

Hearing loss can simply be defined s a partial or total loss of hearing and can be classified into three main types viz; Conductive loss where mainly the outer or middle ear function is affected, sensorineural hearing loss which involves the damage to cochlea or the auditory nerve and mixed hearing loss having both conductive as well as sensorineural components present. Mechanism involved in normal hearing is very complex. Sound waves enter the outer ear and set the tympanic membrane into vibrations. These vibrations are conveyed via the ossicular chain to the inner ear through the oval window setting the inner ear fluids and the basilar membrane in motion. These vibrations take form of “travelling wave” that travels from the base of the cochlea to the apex. This wave peaks at the place tuned to the frequency and dies away rapidly. These in turn stimulate the sensory hair cells of organ of Corti which activate the auditory nerve and the signal is now a neural code that can be processed by the nervous system (Gelfand, 2009). Damage to any part of the ear, thus disrupts the hearing mechanism and results in hearing loss of varying degrees depending on the severity and the site of destruction. Ototoxicity, trauma, noise exposure, ageing, infections , tumors, temporal bone fracture etc are few of the many other reasons that disrupt the hearing mechanism and elevate the hearing thresholds. Prevalence of hearing loss dropping with age has been well documented and falls below 35%

There are many types of hearing loss that can be gained. Congenital deafness is when someone is born being deaf. Three out of every one thousand infants in the United States are born with congenital deafness (Sheen 16). Another type of hearing loss is the conductive deafness. In this case, the outer and middle ears, which send sound waves to the inner ear, are having the hearing problems (11). Lastly, sensorineural hearing loss is when there is damage in the inner ear. The inner ear’s job is to convert sound waves to electrical or neutral impulses, so then it can be carried to the brain and be translated (15). Causes of hearing loss include environmental and natural causes. A premature baby is at a higher risk of being deaf (18). Ear