Different Techniques In Treating Hearing Loss

March 10, 2010

A person has the greatest chance of stopping hearing loss when it is still early as there may still be the possibility of treating and even reversing it all together. Some things that can cause hearing loss are diseases, illnesses and bing bumped on the head. It is very possible a person is born with hearing disabilities, as the human body can be a fragile thing developing at birth.

It is obvious that even small things like a flu or a cold can affect a person’s hearing. Sometimes, being sick is not the reason your hearing is affected and maybe it is because of the medicine you are taking. Another very common way of a person losing their sense of hearing is by injuring themselves.

Easily the most common cause of hearing loss in a person is due to exposure in areas with very loud noise pollution. This can be the constant loud noise that you hear everyday, for example living near an airport or a freeway. This can also be something very rare, like being near an explosion, a gunshot or even a sudden outburst of extremely high decibel sound.

Detecting hearing loss before it can do real harm to a person is the first step to treating it. The importance of detecting hearing loss early is because some hearing disorders can be reversed. A hearing test is the first thing a hearing specialist will do on the patient to find out what the real problem is.

Hearing tests that involve an audiometer are the most precise and preferred by doctors and specialists as it is a way to detect the person’s sensitivity to sound. A person undergoing the test will be asked to wear earphones connected to an audiometer inside a soundproof booth. The audiologist uses the audiometer to produce tones at specific frequencies and volume to each ear of the subject.

The person inside the booth should respond at once and at first instance of hearing the sound. A plot of sound frequency against sound decibel levels is graphed by the technician. A look at the graph will easily reveal if the person actually has hearing loss and what frequencies and decibel levels.

Another hearing test is performed using what are called the Weber and Rinne tests, which are used to detect conductive or sensorineural hearing loss. To determine the type of hearing loss present, tuning forks are used on the patient. The Weber test is a simple and quick screening test for hearing loss while the Rinne test is performed to confirm the nature of hearing loss whether conductive or sensorineural.

The tuning fork is first placed in the exact middle of the forehead in the Weber test. The patient will either hear unequal sound in the ears, which means hearing loss in one of the ears or equal sound meaning no hearing loss or equal hearing loss. The only definite thing that can be concluded from this test is when the sound heard is not the same in both ears.

After the Weber test, the Rinne test is performed to find out if the person has conductive hearing loss or sensorineural. The two tests can also be performed to find out if the right or left ear has which type of hearing loss. These tests are the first steps to take to determine hearing loss in a person.

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