Sensory Hearing Loss

Also known as sensorineural hearing loss, sensory hearing loss refers to deficiency in hearing due to significant damage in the inner ear, involving the cochlea and the auditory nerve passageways that lead directly into the brain. This kind of hearing loss is more severe than conductive and is more difficult to surgically rectify because of the fact that it is situated farther back from the external ear and the ear canal. Wispy, faint, or distant sounds are most characteristic of sensory hearing loss, along with trouble with speech comprehension.

The causes of sensory hearing loss are most related to poor function of hear cells, which is a condition extant at birth or damaged sometime during live. Hair cell dysfunction can be brought about through constant or overwhelming exposure to noise; head trauma; ear, eye, or respiratory infection; or genetic make-up. Abnormalities or damage to the VIII cranial nerve or any part of the central auditory system situated within the brain are also major sources of sensory hearing loss. These last two are likely to be corrected without the use of a hearing aid. Other causes: health conditions, such as Diabetes, Pneumonia, the Flu, Waardenburg Syndrom, and Menieres Disease; viruses; ingestion of toxic chemicals, including certain medicines; allergies; tumors; and, of course, aging. Hearing loss is normal development with growing older and cannot always be maintained without, again, the use of a hearing aid.

Treatments for sensory hearing loss involve, as said, hearing aids, telecommunication devises designed to assist the hard-of-hearing and surgical implants. Medicine rarely works on this type of hearing loss, unless the cause is associated with viral or bacterial infections or allegories, but although the medicine is to eliminate the source, it might not restore the effect of hearing. This depends on the state and severity of the particular condition. As for surgery, the cochlear implant works well at restoring hearing. This device has two parts, the first situated behind the ear, the second under the skin and near the mastoid bone. Signals are received by the first part, transmitted to the second, which transforms those signals into impulses that are, in turn, sent pasted the ossicles bones of the middle ear cavity to a relay on the cochlea, which then forwards the impulses through the auditory nerve and into the brain, where they are interpreted and stored away in the short-term memory. This is a complex operation, but, despite ongoing debates by those who question its efficacy, the cochlear device has had mostly positive results.

Sensory hearing loss should never be taken casually. This deficiency has the power to affect a person’s life dramatically and should always be taken seriously. Hearing is an important function that is contingent to a healthy mind and healthy body.