New cures are constantly being found. That may be a positive or a negative. For example, you may look at encouraging new research in the arena of curing hearing loss and you decide you don’t really need to be all that careful. By the time you start showing symptoms of hearing loss, you think, they’ll have discovered the cure for deafness.
That’s not a good idea. Clearly, protecting your hearing now while it’s still healthy would be the better choice. Scientists are making some remarkable advances when it comes to treating hearing loss though, including some potential cures in the future.
Hearing loss stinks
Hearing loss is just a fact of life. It doesn’t indicate you’re a bad person or you did something wrong or you’re being punished. It’s just part of getting older. But developing hearing loss has some serious disadvantages. Not only do you hear less, but the disorder can affect your social life, your mental health, and your overall wellness. You will even raise your risk of developing dementia and depression with untreated hearing loss. Lots of research exists that shows a connection between social isolation and neglected hearing loss.
In general, hearing loss is a chronic and degenerative condition. So, over time, it will keep getting worse and there isn’t any cure. This doesn’t pertain to every kind of hearing loss but we’ll get to that soon. But “no cure” is not the same as “no treatment”.
We can help you maintain your levels of hearing and slow the progression of hearing loss. Hearing aids are often the form of treatment that will be most appropriate for most types of hearing loss. So there are treatments for most people but there’s no cure. And your quality of life will be immensely improved by these treatments.
Two types of hearing loss
There are differences in forms of hearing loss. Hearing loss comes in two main categories. One can be cured, the other can be treated. Here’s what you need to know:
- Conductive hearing loss: This form of hearing loss occurs because something gets in the way and blocks your ear canal. Maybe it’s a bunch of earwax (a little gross, but it happens). Maybe it’s swelling from an ear infection. Whatever it is, there’s something physically stopping sound waves from traveling up to your inner ear. This type of hearing loss can indeed be cured, typically by removing the obstruction (or treating whatever is causing the obstruction in the first place).
- Sensorineural hearing loss: This form of hearing loss is irreversible. There are delicate hairs in your ear (known as stereocilia) that pick up minute vibrations in the air. These vibrations can be translated to sound by your brain. As you go through life, these hairs become damaged, by loud sound usually. And once they’re damaged, the hairs don’t function. This diminishes your ability to hear. There’s currently no way to heal these hairs, and your body doesn’t create new ones naturally. Once they’re gone, they’re gone.
Treatments for sensorineural hearing loss
Sensorineural hearing loss may be irreversible but that doesn’t mean it can’t be treated. The goal of any such treatment is to allow you to hear as much as possible given your hearing loss. Keeping you functioning as independently as possible, enhancing your situational awareness, and letting you hear conversations is the goal.
So, how do you manage this type of hearing loss? Common treatments include the following.
Hearing aids
Most likely, the single most common way of treating hearing loss is hearing aids. They’re particularly beneficial because hearing aids can be specifically tuned for your unique hearing loss. Over the course of your day, a hearing aid will help you hear conversations and interact with others better. Hearing aids can even forestall many symptoms of social solitude (and, as a result, lower your risk of dementia and depression).
There are lots of different styles of hearing aid to choose from and they have become a lot more common. You’ll need to talk to us about which is ideal for you and your particular level of hearing loss.
Cochlear implants
Often, it will be necessary to bypass the ears altogether if hearing loss is total. A cochlear implant does exactly that. This device is surgically inserted into the ear. The device picks up on sounds and translates those sounds into electrical energy, which is then transferred directly to your cochlear nerve. Your brain then interprets those signals as sound.
Cochlear implants are normally used when hearing loss is complete, a condition called deafness. So even if your hearing has gone away completely, there are still treatment options available.
Novel advances
New novel ways of treating hearing loss are always being researched by scientists.
In the past, curing hearing loss has proven impossible, but that’s precisely what new advances are geared towards. Some of these advances include:
- Stem cell therapies: These therapies utilize stem cells from your own body. The concept is that new stereocilia can be generated by these stem cells (those delicate hairs in your ears). Studies with animals (like rats and mice) have shown some promise, but some kind of prescription stem cell gene therapy is probably still going to be a while.
- Progenitor cell activation: So, stem cells in your ear originate the creation of stereocilia. Once the stereocilia develop, the stem cells become inactive, and they are then known as progenitor cells. These new therapies are encouraging the stereocilia to regrow by reactivating the progenitor cells. Encouraging results for these new therapies have come from early human trials. Most people noticed a substantial improvement in their ability to hear and understand speech. It isn’t really known how long it will be before these treatments will be widely available.
- GFI1 Protein: There’s a protein which has been discovered by researchers that is critical for the regrowth of stereocilia. Researchers are hoping that they can get a better idea of how to get these stereocilia to grow back by recognizing this protein. Again, this is one of those therapies that’s more in the “drawing board” phase than the “widely available” phase.
Don’t wait to have your hearing loss treated
There’s a lot of promise in these innovations. But let’s not forget that none of them are available to the public at this point. Which means that it’s a good idea to live in the here and now. Protect your hearing today.
Don’t try to hold out for that miracle cure, call us now to schedule a hearing exam.
References
https://hsci.harvard.edu/major-step-toward-treatment-leading-form-hearing-loss
https://news.mit.edu/2022/frequency-therapeutics-hearing-regeneration-0329