Hearing

  With advancements in medicine, more people live to a ripe old age. This however has also given rise to an increase in age related health concerns. Common examples of this are arthritis, hearing loss & diabetes.But to say hearing loss is restricted to the elderly would be a fallacy. As a condition it is quite prevalent in children and young adults as well.  

The ability to listen and communicate with society is a very important aspect of living a healthy life. Without this, our social interactions begin to fall apart. Unfortunately though, hearing health is  often ignored. 

Phenomenon of Selective Hearing

 Hearing loss  in a way is like Colour Blindness. A person who is colour blind for red will read the word HEARING as ***RING. Similarly someone with high frequency hearing loss will hear the word SPARK as *PARK, FRISK as *RISK and SHAME as **AIM. 

Most people with a hearing loss do not complain of an active problem in hearing. Their chief concern lies with understanding words because of selective hearing loss for some sounds. When the context is predictable,  or the patient is attentive towards the conversation, understanding of words is easy. At other times sentences may have to be repeated a few times before the meaning may be understood.

Reason for Selective Hearing Loss

The inner ear’s hearing sensor, called the cochlea, is shaped like a snail. It has sound sensors arranged like the keys of a piano. Each section of cochlea responds to a different type of sound.

 Age associated hearing loss first affects the basal part of cochlea which is responsible for high frequencies (treble). Thus, most hearing losses start with the inability to hear soft sounds such as “SH”, “SS”, “TH” & “FF”. 

 Words like House are heard as How, Sheep as Peep & Four as Pour. 

 In such situations, one needs to pay extra attention to fill in the gaps and guess the word based on the context. Often there is increased dependance on lip reading.

 On being attentive a person may carry out ‘one-to-one conversation’, though problems are exposed when talking to people in groups or listening in noise.   Understanding T.V. without subtitles is a challenge & patients often need to ask family members to repeat themselves while having a conversation. 

Hearing Loss, Dementia, Diabetes and Risk of Falls

 Untreated hearing loss has been linked with Alzheimer’s Disease, Dementia, and a higher risk of taking a fall in the elderly. Recent studies have also found links between poor hearing, increased risk of falls, coronary heart disease and diabetes.

It’s advised that all adults over the age of 40 should have their hearing tested at regular intervals.  Early detection and treatment of hearing loss has shown to mitigate the increased mental health risks in patients.

Not only the elderly, concerns with hearing are also common in children, and thus for early identification of hearing loss many countries have adopted universal newborn hearing screening programs. Once a child with a hearing loss is identified, immediate treatment is offered so that hearing loss can be corrected within the first year of life.  

Modern Hearing Devices

 The modern hearing aid works on a silicon chip which sizes only a few milli-metres. This allows devices to be virtually invisible without compromising on the power, and have the ability to connect to the phone or television wirelessly for comfort in hearing. With better noise cancellation and auto memory change in difficult hearing environments, the compliance of hearing aids is better today than ever before in human history.

Surgery for Hearing Loss

If the hearing organ has had extensive damage & it is evident that the patient can’t hear or understand words even with the best available hearing aids, a  CI (Cochlear Implant) surgery is considered.

 An electrical implant (3) is inserted in the Cochlea (4) which communicates with the hearing nerve. An external processor  (1) picks up sound, processes it & sends it to the internal implant, which can then stimulate the hearing nerve & the brain.

 Please contact the clinic for info on candidacy & patient outcomes post Cochlear Implant surgery.