Causes of hearing loss

Hearing is one of the main senses that allow a person to adequately perceive the surrounding reality. But sometimes this sense is reduced or even lost completely. The reasons for hearing loss can be different. Most often, this phenomenon is associated with age-related changes in the body. However, this is not always the case: young people can also experience partial or complete hearing loss.

Hearing loss may well be the result of external and internal influences. For example, problems often appear after infectious and viral pathologies that spread to the auditory organs, as well as with vascular diseases, ear injuries (including acoustic ones), after antibiotic therapy. By the way, prolonged use of such drugs as streptomycin, gentamicin and some others can have a strong and negative effect on hearing. In addition to antibiotics, hearing loss can be caused by lead or mercury compounds, carbon monoxide, some diuretics and even cigarette smoke, which is ototoxic if present constantly.

Age-related hearing loss is a fairly common phenomenon, which can be observed in 35% of patients at the age of 70, and in almost 50% after the age of 75.

However, age-related changes are not the only possible cause of hearing loss; there are quite a few known factors:

• damage to the inner ear or changes in the receptor system in the cochlea;
• long-term exposure of the hearing to loud sounds, as well as short-term but very strong exposure to sound;
• hereditary hearing loss, as well as congenital anomalies of the hearing apparatus;
• infectious diseases that have an ototoxic effect;
• injuries affecting the integrity of the eardrum;
• strong pressure changes (when diving, flying, during a sharp ascent or descent);
• taking certain medications, particularly antibiotics and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs;
• meningitis and other infectious diseases accompanied by an increase in body temperature.

Often, hearing loss is associated with professional activity: this is work in a noisy production facility, with mechanisms and devices that emit loud sounds.

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Causes of hearing loss in children

Children sometimes suffer from congenital deafness, which can be transmitted genetically. According to statistics, for every 10 thousand children, 10 of them are born deaf. Geneticists have discovered a list of genes responsible for the development of deafness. However, this phenomenon has not yet been fully studied.

In some cases, children may be born with hearing defects - this is an anomaly in the development of the eardrum, the auditory ossicle, which interferes with the normal passage of sound.

As for older children, hearing loss is often associated with exposure to loud music and other sound effects. Loud noise is played through headphones, in clubs, concerts, and discos. This type of stress on the auditory organs is called excessive sound stimulation. Again, according to statistics, almost 17 million US residents have problems from such stimulation.

It has been proven that even half a minute of sound exposure at around 140 decibels causes dangerous changes in the auditory hairs involved in the transmission of sound waves.

Very often, tinnitus and hearing loss occur when listening to loud music in headphones for a long time, especially vacuum ones. By the way, the French government back in the 60s of the last century approved a law limiting the sound intensity in players to 100 decibels. In addition, all audio devices sold in France always indicate that loud and prolonged listening poses a danger to the hearing organs. Needless to say, constant noise has a negative effect not only on the ears, but also on a person's mental state.

Cause of tinnitus and hearing loss

The human auditory system is very sensitive. Therefore, excessive short-term sound, or prolonged but low-intensity noise (for example, at work) can cause constant tinnitus and hearing loss.

Besides this, there may be other reasons:

• viral diseases, or more precisely, their complications (consequences of tonsillitis, flu, measles, mumps, scarlet fever, etc.);
• chlamydia infection;
• inflammatory processes affecting the auditory organs (for example, otitis);
• general intoxication of the body (exposure to lead or mercury preparations);
• traumatic brain injury, damage to the eardrum or auditory nerve (for example, during deep diving or mechanical impact);
• high blood pressure, vascular diseases (impaired blood supply to the internal organ of hearing);
• drug therapy with ototoxic drugs.

If the problem is noticed in time, in most cases it will help to preserve and restore the hearing function. Often the issue is resolved by simply washing the ear canals from the sulfur plug, which is the number 1 cause of tinnitus and hearing loss.

Causes of hearing loss in one ear

Hearing loss does not always develop bilaterally: sometimes only one ear suffers, and this variant is more common than the first. In many cases, the problem is solved by removing the accumulation of sulfur in the ear, or by treating the inflammatory process. In some situations, it is quite difficult to determine the cause.

However, among the main factors of hearing loss in one ear are:

• a sudden, high-intensity, loud sound near the ear (such as a gunshot);
• presbycusis (a disorder associated with age-related changes);
• exposure to infection ( otitis );
• injury to the ear, or severe head injury (for example, a fracture of the temporal bone);
• the presence of a foreign object in the ear canal, or the presence of a wax plug;
• otosclerotic changes;
• tumor process near the auditory nerve.

Hearing loss is often not an independent disease, but only a symptom that occurs as a result of some pathology. Changes in the acuity of sound perception can be temporary or permanent, depending on the cause of hearing loss. It is important to detect this cause, for which there are many effective diagnostic methods today.