Hearing loss due to ageing is widespread. Around half of the people in the U.S. over the age of 65 years suffer from some hearing conditions. It’s not just the elders who suffer from hearing problems; instead, people of all ages can be hearing impaired. Hearing loss is mainly of three types:
- Sensorineural
- Conductive
- Mixed (combination of conductive and sensorineural)
Chronic exposure to high pitch sounds and ageing can both contribute to hearing impairment. However, factors such as an excessive amount of earwax can temporarily reduce the conduction of your hearing.
But how do you know if you are suffering from temporary or chronic hearing loss? That’s why this article is here to help! Here, you’ll get to know all the different syndromes that show a hearing loss.
General Symptoms of Hearing Impairment
Even adults can suffer from hearing impairments, and it can indeed be a problem, especially if you have an active social life.
The following are some general symptoms of hearing loss:
- Family or your friends say you put the radio or television volume too loud.
- You face challenges while hearing people over the phone.
- You struggle to understand speeches and sounds, especially in noisy environments.
- A sudden feeling of listening to things but not understanding them properly.
- You are not always sure where a particular sound is coming from.
- You often ask your friends or family to repeat themselves.
- You find yourself staying away from social situations.
- You feel a ringing in your ears (It could be due to tinnitus)
- You are way too dependent on others to assist you to hear.
- You start to feel exhausted after attending some social events, mainly termed as “listening fatigue.”
Hearing Loss Due to Nerve Damage or Inner Ear Damage
One of the most common types of hearing impairment is sensorineural hearing impairment. This happens due to the damage to the delicate hair cells in the passages of the ears. These cells are responsible for carrying the sound to the brain. This may also cause unique problems like musical ear syndrome.
Approximately 90% of people have this type of hearing loss, which can be due to a wide range of reasons.
Clarity and Volume are Affected
Usually, sensorineural hearing loss is gradual—you don’t wake up at night not being able to hear anything! Instead, you will gradually start to lose your ability to hear.
Nevertheless, how clearly (clarity) and how loudly (volume) you are hearing are both affected due to sensorineural hearing impairment. You might even face a kind of phenomenon called “recruitment.”
This causes some specific sounds to be very uncomfortable. For instance, you may love fireworks shows, but after developing the condition, you may find these noises annoying and unbearable.
Sensorineural hearing loss can affect quite a range of hearing. Below are some of the examples of Sensorineural hearing loss.
High-Frequency hearing impairment syndromes
One of the most apparent sensorineural hearing losses is “high-frequency hearing impairment.” It appears more like a “ski slope” kind of a pattern on an audiogram.
This results in the reduction of the following hearing ability:
- Consonant sounds like f, v, p, “th” can make words difficult to understand.
- The chirping sounds of the birds.
- The car’s turn signals.
- The voices of children and women.
- Beeping sounds on the microwave and timer.
Mid-Range Frequency hearing impairment syndromes
“Cookie bite” or mid-range hearing loss takes place when an adult or child faces challenges to hear sounds that are in the mid-range frequencies.
These are those sounds that are neither low-pitched nor high-pitched. So, you can already assume what sort of sound these can be. We hear these sounds in our daily lives, like when talking to family members or even when listening to music.
Generally, people suffering from this can easily hear the alarm clocks or even the bursting sound of a tire, yet struggle to hear music or any kind of speech.
Low-Frequency hearing impairment syndrome
This kind of hearing condition is quite rare. Low-Frequency hearing impairment symptoms might make understanding men’s voices more challenging when compared to children or women. Listening to people over the phone can also be challenging, but casual face-to-face communication might seem pretty easy to understand.
Environmental low-pitched sounds might also appear to be very difficult to detect—for instance, music bass or even the thudding sound of the thunder.
Conductive Hearing Loss Syndromes
Approximately 10% of people have a conductive hearing impairment. This means their inner ears work perfectly, but the middle and outer ears don’t generally respond for some reason.
It can either be due to some kind of head trauma or extreme earwax blockage. Moreover, most permanent conductive hearing loss is usually detected during birth or even sooner than that.
In most adults, this issue tends to develop faster than sensorineural hearing loss. Depending on the type of the condition, it can also be reversible.
The symptoms are just like the general hearing loss symptoms.
Hearing Loss Symptoms in Children and Infants
Hearing impairment can usually be detected when they are just born. But some of the parents might not be able to catch the symptoms.
So, below are some of the symptoms you might see among children:
- The child doesn’t get startled when he hears a loud noise.
- Behavioral issues and poor performance in school.
- Delay in language and speech development.
- Learning disabilities.
- Faces problems with localizing sounds.
These are some of the common syndromes that children can show when suffering from hearing impairment. So, it’s essential for parents to have proper observations of their child to identify the symptoms.
Final Words
There are many possible reasons for developing hearing loss. Most importantly, identify the symptoms. You won’t know you are suffering from hearing impairment if you are unaware of your symptoms.
So, if you see any such kind of symptoms, you should consult an audiologist. Different syndromes of hearing loss have various hearing issues. So, early treatment might be very effective in curing or at least aiding your hearing impairment.