Hearing Loss Treatment in Berkeley, CA
Do you feel like you can hear people talking, but not always clearly understand what they’re saying? Is it hard to follow conversations in noisy places? Do you find yourself turning your phone up to the highest volume… and still missing some of what’s said?
Hearing loss can feel isolating. Worse, it can happen so slowly you don’t realize it right away, which is dangerous considering even slight hearing loss can affect your brain and cognitive function.
How common is hearing loss? By some estimates, hearing loss affects over 466 million people across the globe. An ailment that has many categories, causes, and treatments, hearing loss is far from monolithic–but it remains one of the most common and persistent health issues around the world.
The more you know about hearing loss, the better you can protect your own hearing.
Schedule an appointment at our clinic in Berkeley, CA today!
Hearing Loss Symptoms That Often Go Unnoticed
You might think that hearing loss is obvious…you simply can’t hear. But hearing loss can occur so slowly that the first symptoms go unnoticed or are shrugged off.
Words sound indistinct as if they are muffled
It’s harder to hear in crowds or when there is lots of background noise
You find yourself turning up the volume
You’re avoiding the theater or movies because you can’t hear the softer dialog
You’ve withdrawn from social settings, especially larger groups or noisier venues
You’re tired all the time, and you’ve ruled out the usual reasons
You tune out colleagues more often at work
You’re struggling with basic cognitive functions like recollection and memory
What Causes Hearing Loss?
In some cases, the root cause of hearing loss is relatively straightforward and easy to see. But for the majority of people, identifying a single explanation for hearing loss symptoms can be challenging. For example, various minor issues can interact to produce hearing loss and deafness in unexpected ways.
Congenital issues
Birth defects or congenital issues are the most common causes of hearing loss in younger people, including infants and children. That said, some issues may not develop into a noticeable problem until later in life.
Physical obstruction
Hearing relies on the passage of air vibrations from your outer ear and through your middle ear. If something obstructs your ear at any point along that pathway, hearing impairment can result. Hearing can usually be restored if the obstructions are removed.
Infection
Your ears can be prone to both primary and secondary infections. Severe or chronic ear infections can cause damage to your hearing ability, in some cases resulting in hearing loss.
Age Factors
In some cases, the primary cause of hearing loss might be age. However, it’s quite difficult to differentiate between age-related hearing loss and noise-induced hearing loss. In many cases, there is no functional difference.
Noise damage
Perhaps the most common cause of chronic hearing loss is damage to the ears due to overly loud noise. Sounds above an 85 dB threshold can cause slow, permanent degradation in your ability to hear.
Trauma
There are various types of trauma that can cause hearing loss. In some cases that could be trauma to the ears. In other cases, traumatic brain injury (TBI) can cause short term or long term hearing loss
Types of Hearing Loss
Hearing loss is usually divided into two broad categories. Sensorineural hearing loss has no known cure and is effectively permanent. Conductive hearing loss, however, often clears up when the underlying obstructions are removed. It’s not uncommon for both types of hearing loss to be present in some people.
Conductive hearing loss
This is a type of hearing loss caused by the formation of an obstruction somewhere along the hearing pathway. For example, the obstruction could be caused by an infection or a non-cancerous growth. In some cases, the obstruction could be something as simple as compacted earwax. In any case, the obstruction blocks sound waves from moving through your ear canal, effectively creating hearing loss.
Sensorineural hearing loss
Human hearing depends on tiny hair cells in the ears called stereocilia. Normally, these hairs vibrate when exposed to sound waves and transmit that information to the brain. The brain, then, goes about the work of translating those vibrations into understandable sounds. When stereocilia are damaged in humans they are unable to repair or rejuvenate themselves. This results in permanent, long-term damage to your hearing.
