Hearing Loss Treatment in India - Causes, Symptoms and Treatment

Speech and other sounds are more difficult or impossible to hear when one has hearing loss. Hearing loss comes in various forms and can be mild, moderate, severe, or profound. There are both temporary and permanent forms of hearing loss.

What are the Possible Causes of Hearing Loss?

There could be various causes for hearing impairment. It can be hereditary or just a part of ageing. A loud noise, an illness, the impact of chemicals, or an accident can all cause it. The good news is that most types of hearing loss can be properly treated. The reasons for hearing loss in adults can differ from those in children. Adult hearing loss could be a result of any of the following:

■ Otosclerosis:

It affects the middle ear. The middle ear's small bones have a tougher time moving. Conductive hearing loss results from it. Surgery is a common hearing impairment treatment for this illness.

■ Acoustic Neuroma:

This is an illustration of a tumour that impairs hearing. Additionally, it may result in ringing in the ears and a stuffed-ear sensation. Acoustic neuromas require medical attention.

■ Presbycusis:

This sensorineural hearing loss develops with advancing age. Speech may begin to sound garbled or muddled. You might need to ask individuals to repeat themselves or crank up the TV's volume to hear it.

■ Physical Injury:

Hearing loss may result from a traumatic brain injury (TBI), an eardrum hole, or harm to the middle ear.

■ Autoimmune Ear Disease:

When you have an autoimmune condition, your body starts to attack itself. This kind of hearing loss develops quickly. If you unexpectedly lose your hearing, you should visit a doctor immediately. Hearing impairment can be reduced with medical treatment.

■ Ménière's Disease:

This is an issue with the inner ear. It is unknown what causes Ménière's disease. Typically, it begins in people between the ages of 30 and 50. This condition frequently results in sensorineural hearing loss in the patient. Ringing in the ears and dizziness are frequent. Another possibility is sensitivity to loud noises. While the degrees of hearing impairment fluctuates, some of it eventually becomes permanent.

■ Exposure to Excessive Noise:

Permanent hearing loss can be caused by loud noise. Loss of hearing due to noise is usually gradual and painless. A sudden hearing loss can be brought on by hearing an extraordinarily loud sound, such as an explosion.

Hearing loss in children mostly results from congenital or hereditary disorders, something that the child acquires from the mother when in womb. The reasons of hearing impairment in children include the following:

■ Genetic Hearing Loss:

One of every two incidences of hearing loss in infants is mostly congenital due to genetic factors. There may be relatives who also have hearing loss in some infants whose hearing loss is inherited.

■ Maternal Infections:

Babies with hearing loss in 1 out of every 4 cases result from head trauma, postpartum problems, and infections in the mother during pregnancy.

■ Acquired Hearing Loss:

Hearing loss that develops after birth, at any moment in a person's life, may result from a disease, injury, or infection like Otitis Media (a type of ear infection), Measles, Meningitis, Encephalitis, Mumps, and many more.

Types of Hearing Loss

There are three main types of hearing loss, both in children and adults. Those are:

1. Conductive Hearing Loss

Conductive hearing loss is a common type of hearing impairment in both children and adults. Either ear may be impacted. Sound impulses must pass through the ear canal and eardrum and into the inner ear for someone to hear. Conductive hearing loss occurs when the outer or middle ear gets partially or completely blocked. Several factors include:

• An accumulation of fluid behind the eardrum (frequently a side effect of recurrent ear infections)
• Accumulation of wax in the ear canal
• Difficulty with the eardrum
• Infection
• Growths
• Abnormal ear bone development or malformation
• Objects, such as food or a piece of a toy, lodged in the ear canal

A medical or surgical technique may be used to treat conductive hearing loss, which is frequently transient. Hearing frequently returns to normal after the obstruction or issue has been properly handled. A small tube may be placed into the eardrum to help drain the fluid if the reason is fluid buildup behind the eardrum. The medical professional can give you further information regarding the root of your child's hearing loss and available management options.

2. Sensorineural Hearing Loss

When the neural pathways leading to the brain or the inner ear are damaged, SNHL or sensorineural hearing loss results. Typically, this kind of hearing loss is irreversible. Even distinct, regular, or loud sounds become dizzy or confusing when exposed to Sensorineural Hearing Loss.

SNHL may be a result of the following:

• Birth abnormalities that change the ear's anatomy ageing exposure to loud noises
• Injury to the skull or head
• Meniere's disease is an inner ear ailment that can impair balance and hearing.
• Acoustic Neuroma, a non-cancerous tumour that develops on the vestibular cochlear nerve, which connects the ear to the brain.

3. Mixed Hearing Loss

A combination of conductive and sensorineural hearing loss is known as mixed hearing loss. There is conductive damage in the outer or the middle ear and sensorineural damage in the cochlea or inner ear. The course of treatment depends on what caused the hearing loss. The patient can be given treatment using various techniques, including hearing aids.

Symptoms of Hearing Loss in Adults

The kind and severity of your hearing loss will determine your specific symptoms. For instance, a person with minor hearing loss in both ears will receive sound differently than someone with substantial hearing loss in only one ear.

• Being unable to hear others completely. People may appear to be mumbling, and those with hearing loss might not catch all of a conversation. For instance, someone with hearing loss can miss the point of a joke or the punch line that was just spoken.
• Asking for clarification or repeating regularly.
• A propensity to need to fix your gaze on others when they are speaking to comprehend what they are saying.
• Fatigue from trying to hear at the end of the day.
• Social circumstances because it's tough to follow conversations in noisy settings.
• Fear of asking someone to repeat themselves causes people to bluff when they can't hear them.

Diagnosis and Treatments in Adults

There are different tests to diagnose hearing impairments in adults, such as:

■ General screening tests:

Your doctor may ask you to cover one ear at a time while they whisper into it to test your ability to hear words uttered at different volumes and how you react to other noises.

■ Physical examination:

Your physician will check your ears for any causes of hearing loss, such as wax buildup or inflammation brought on by an infection.

■ Tuning fork tests:

Tuning forks are metal instruments with two prongs producing sound when struck. This study might also show the precise location of the injury in your ear.

There are two treatment options for hearing loss in adults- Surgical and Non-surgical.

1. Surgical Treatments for Hearing Loss

Ear Tube Surgery: It is frequently done to treat persistent ear infections. Air can pass through, and fluid can drain from your middle ear through tiny plastic or metal tubes inserted within your eardrum.

■ Stapedectomy: This operation addresses otosclerosis or abnormal bone growth in the middle ear. The stapes, a small bone, are artificially replaced by your surgeon.

■ Bone-anchored hearing aids (BAHA): It is also referred to as bone conduction implants, are these devices. They painlessly transmit sound waves to the inner ear by passing through your skull.

Cochlear implants are electrical devices that use the auditory nerve to transmit sound impulses to the brain. They are only for those with severe hearing loss that cannot be helped by hearing aids.

2. Non-Surgical Treatments for Hearing Loss

■ Medication: Certain medications may treat or alleviate the underlying condition if a medical condition, such as recurrent ear infections, brings on your hearing loss.

■ Removal of Earwax: To properly remove earwax that has clogged your ear canal, we provide several non-surgical methods.

■ Hearing Aids: Traditional hearing aids are removable, wearable devices that are simple to take off. They enhance the noises around you so you can hear better.

■ ALDs, or assistive listening devices: You can use these hearing aids alone or with other devices. For instance, certain ALDs make your TV, doorbell, or phone sound louder.

Hearing Disorders in Children

There are two types of hearing disorders in Children, such as-

■ Auditory Processing Disorder (APD):

APD happens when the ear functions normally, but the brain misinterprets sound. The brain must identify and translate the sounds it delivers for the body to hear words correctly. The sounds that make up a word or words are prevented by something in people with APD from being correctly processed or interpreted by the brain. Because of this, words are misheard, and fine variations between sounds in words cannot be heard. There is no recognised cause of APD. APD symptoms include:

• Bad listening abilities
• Unable to distinguish background noise from speech
• Difficulty listening to and recalling spoken material, like in a classroom
• Language difficulties, such as syllable confusion,
• Difficulty with vocabulary, spelling, and comprehension when reading
• Frustration at school, unpleasant behaviour, and poor performance

You can run tests to see if your child has APD. If your child needs to be tested, speak with their doctor. Their audiologist can identify the specific kind of hearing impairment your child has. The audiologist can also assist you in deciding the course of your child's treatment in the future.

■ Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Disorder (ANSD):

The inner ear functions normally in this situation, but a malfunction prevents the brain from appropriately identifying and interpreting sound. As a result, words are misheard. A sound may also come in and then go away. There is no recognised cause for ANSD. There has to be more research done before determining whether it is related to issues with the hearing nerve. Your child's audiologist can do hearing tests to determine if they have ANSD.

Symptoms of Hearing Loss in Children

Signs and symptoms of hearing loss are different in infants/toddlers and school-going children, such as:

Symptoms in Infants:

• Doesn't respond to loud noises.
• Does not look for or locate the source of the sound.
• Stopped playing around with sounds and babbling.
• Still babbles but does not seem to be making any headway towards clearer speech.
• Does not respond to voices, not even when held.

Symptoms in School-going Children:

• Does not understand or understand or follow simple commands.
• Quickly irritated or has problems communicating.
• Lagging in terms of communication and speaking abilities.
• Dependant on lipreading.
• Getting exhausted after school from focusing on understanding speech.

Hearing Loss Treatments in Children

Early detection and treatment of hearing loss are required to avoid additional issues with speech and language development. A healthcare team approach is commonly adopted when a child is identified as having some degree of hearing loss.

A team of audiologists, Otolaryngologists, and speech pathologists try the following methods to manage hearing loss in children-

■ Hearing Aids: These are gadgets that can modify and magnify sound that is electronic or battery-powered. A microphone picks up the sound, transforming it into sound waves. Then electrical signals are created from the sound waves.

■ Cochlear Implant: A device implanted surgically that aids in delivering electrical stimulation to the inner ear. Only a select few kids are suitable for this kind of gadget. For further information, speak with your child's physician.

■ Training: Instructions and training are given to help children in lipreading and sign language.

■ Speech Therapy: After receiving hearing aids or a cochlear implant, children with hearing loss that has impaired their speech may require speech-language therapy to help them catch up on communication deficits.

■ Assistive Listening Devices: In addition to the child's hearing aid or cochlear implant, many hearing aid manufacturing firms offer discrete assistive listening devices, such as FM systems, that function well in a school setting.

Hearing loss can impact communication between people, close relationships, access to education, work prospects, and financial independence. Thus, an early treatment of hearing loss should be opted for. Children must undergo hearing tests to evaluate their hearing abilities.

Hearing Loss Treatment FAQ