In order to understand hearing loss, we must first understand how we hear.
Hearing occurs when sound waves reach the structures inside your ear, where the sound wave vibrations are converted into nerve signals that your brain recognizes as sound.
Your ear consists of three major areas: outer ear, middle ear and inner ear. Sound waves pass through the outer ear and cause vibrations at the eardrum. The eardrum and three small bones of the middle ear amplify the vibrations as they travel to the inner ear. There, the vibrations pass through fluid in a snail-shaped structure in the inner ear (cochlea).
Attached to nerve cells in the cochlea are thousands of tiny hairs that help translate sound vibrations into electrical signals that are transmitted to your brain. The vibrations of different sounds affect these tiny hairs in different ways, causing the nerve cells to send different signals to your brain. That’s how you distinguish one sound from another.
Causes of hearing loss include:
Damage to the inner ear – Aging and exposure to loud noise may cause wear and tear on the hairs or nerve cells in the cochlea that send sound signals to the brain. When these hairs or nerve cells are damaged or missing, electrical signals aren’t transmitted as efficiently, and hearing loss occurs. Higher pitched tones may become muffled to you. It may become difficult for you to pick out words against background noise. Heredity may make you more prone to these changes. This type of hearing loss is known as sensorineural hearing loss, which is permanent.
A gradual buildup of earwax- Earwax can block the ear canal and prevent conduction of sound waves. This can be restored with earwax removal.
Ear infection and abnormal bone growths or tumors- In the outer or middle ear, any of these can cause hearing loss.
Ruptured eardrum (tympanic membrane perforation)- Loud blasts of noise, sudden changes in pressure, poking your eardrum with an object and infection can cause your eardrum to rupture and affect your hearing.
Some types of hearing loss are preventable while some are not. We encourage you to protect your hearing. If you have noticed that you don’t hear as well as you once did, we would like to help. Contact Purchase Ear Technology by phone at (270) 558-3996 or visit our office at 2008 Broadway St, Paducah, KY 42001.