New cures are always being found. That can be a good thing and a bad thing. For example, you might look at encouraging new research in the arena of curing hearing loss and you decide you don’t really have to be all that cautious. By the time you begin showing symptoms of hearing loss, you think, they’ll have discovered the cure for deafness.
That would be unwise. Without question, it’s better to protect your hearing while you have it. There is some exciting research emerging which is revealing some awesome strides toward effectively treating hearing loss.
Hearing loss is awful
Hearing loss is just a fact of life. It doesn’t mean you’re a negative person or you did something wrong or you’re being penalized. It just… is. But there are some clear drawbacks to experiencing hearing loss. Your social life, overall health, and mental health can be substantially impacted by hearing loss, not to mention your inability to hear what’s taking place around you. Neglected hearing loss can even lead to a greater risk of depression and dementia. There’s plenty of evidence to link untreated hearing loss to problems like social isolation.
Usually, hearing loss is a chronic and degenerative condition. This means that there isn’t any cure and, as time passes, it’ll grow worse. 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”.
If you come see us, we can help slow the progression of your hearing loss and maintain your current levels of hearing. Frequently, this comes in the form of a hearing aid, which is often the ideal treatment for most forms of hearing loss. So, for most individuals, there’s no cure, but there are treatments. And your quality of life will be immensely improved by these treatments.
Hearing loss comes in two main types
There are differences in forms of hearing loss. Hearing loss comes in two principal classes. You can treat one and the other can be cured. Here’s what you need to know:
- Conductive hearing loss: When the ear canal gets obstructed by something, you get this type of hearing loss. It may be because of a buildup of earwax. Possibly, an ear infection is causing swelling. Whatever the cause, there’s something physically stopping sound waves from traveling up to your inner ear. This kind of hearing loss will be cured when the source of the obstruction is removed.
- Sensorineural hearing loss: This type of hearing loss is irreversible. Vibrations in the air are sensed by tiny hairs in your ears known as stereocilia. Your brain is capable of interpreting these vibrations as sound. Regrettably, these hairs are damaged as you go through life, typically by exceedingly loud sounds. And once they are damaged, the hairs don’t function. And when this happens your ability to hear becomes diminished. Your body doesn’t naturally regrow these hairs and we currently have no way to repair them. When you lose them, it’s forever.
Sensorineural hearing loss treatments
Sensorineural hearing loss may be permanent but that doesn’t mean it can’t be managed. Given your loss of hearing, letting you hear as much as you can is the goal of treatment. The objective is to help you hear conversations, enhance your situational awareness, and keep you functioning independently through life.
So, how do you deal with this type of hearing loss? Here are some prevalent treatments.
Hearing aids
Most likely, the one most common way of treating hearing loss is hearing aids. Hearing aids can be individually tuned to your particular hearing needs, so they’re especially beneficial. Over the course of your day, a hearing aid will help you make out conversations and communicate with others better. Hearing aids can even delay many symptoms of social isolation (and, as a result, reduced your danger of dementia and depression).
There are lots of different styles of hearing aid to pick from and they have become a lot more common. You’ll have to talk to us about which is best 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. That’s what a cochlear implant does. Surgery is used to put this device into the ear. This device directly transmits sound, which it has converted into electrical energy, to your cochlear nerve. Your brain then interprets those signals as sound.
When a person has a condition called deafness, or total hearing loss, cochlear implants are sometimes used. So there will still be treatment options even if you have totally lost your hearing.
Novel advances
Scientists are always working on new ways to treat hearing loss.
In the past, curing hearing loss has been impossible, but that’s exactly what new advances are geared towards. Here are some of those advances:
- Stem cell therapies: Your own stem cells are used in this type of treatment. The concept is that new stereocilia can be created by these stem cells (those tiny hairs in your ears). It isn’t likely that we will see prescription gene therapy for a while, but for now, studies with animals are showing promise.
- Progenitor cell activation: So, stem cells in your ear initiate the production of stereocilia. The stem cells go dormant after they develop stereocilia and are then referred to as progenitor cells. These new treatments are stimulating the stereocilia to regrow by reactivating the progenitor cells. Encouraging results for these novel therapies have come from early human trials. Most people noticed a significant improvement in their ability to hear and comprehend speech. How long before these therapies are widely available, however, is unknown.
- GFI1 Protein: Some researchers have discovered a protein that’s essential to growing new stereocilia. Researchers are hoping that they can get a clearer idea of how to get these stereocilia to grow back by recognizing this protein. This treatment is really still on the drawing board and isn’t widely available yet.
Live in the moment – treat your hearing loss now
Many of these innovations are promising. But let’s remember that none of them are available to the public right now. Which means that it’s smart to live in the here and now. Be proactive about protecting your hearing.
A miracle cure isn’t likely to be coming soon, so if you’re coping with hearing loss, give us a call to schedule your hearing test.
References
https://hsci.harvard.edu/major-step-toward-treatment-leading-form-hearing-loss
https://news.mit.edu/2022/frequency-therapeutics-hearing-regeneration-0329
