Hearing Loss Treatment: Consider The Options

If you are not prompt in taking hearing loss treatment, your hearing loss can get worse. Both sensorineural hearing loss treatment and conductive hearing loss treatment can be simple and easy if taken early but can be cumbersome if delayed. Let’s review the hearing loss treatments here:

Sensorineural Hearing Loss Treatment

The Sensorineural hearing loss treatment depends on the cause and severity of your hearing loss. The treatment options are medical, non-invasive therapy or hearing assistance devices, and surgery.   

Medical

Sensorineural hearing loss treatment in children and adults is based on the treatment of underlying cause and requires medical intervention initially.

• Sudden sensorineural hearing loss due to viral infection or exposure to loud noise, bilateral progressive hearing loss due to autoimmune or central nervous system conditions are medically treated with corticosteroids which decrease your inner ear hair cell swelling and inflammation after exposure to loud noise.
• Sensorineural hearing loss treatment in head trauma or abrupt changes in air pressure such as descent of airplane, which can cause rupture or leakage of your inner ear fluid compartment involve emergency surgery.
• Sensorineural hearing loss treatment in Meniere’s disease involving hearing loss, tinnitus and vertigo consist of a low-sodium diet, diuretics, and corticosteroids. Several surgical procedures are used to treat vertigo, in case your vertigo is not checked by medical treatment.

Non-invasive therapy or hearing assistance devices       

Sensorineural hearing loss treatment with non-invasive therapy involves the use of early intervention services for children and infants and the use of hearing aids.

• Babies that are diagnosed with hearing loss should begin to get intervention services as soon as possible, but no later than 6 months of age for the development of speech, language, and social skills. Early intervention is used in children between 0-3 years in which children work with a professional to learn to communicate. Special education is instruction particularly planned to meet the educational and related developmental needs of older children between 3-22 years with disabilities, or those who have developmental delays.
• Hearing loss treatment for irreversible sensorineural hearing loss may be managed with hearing aids.  The sounds are amplified by hearing aids. They can be used by people of any age, including infants. The sounds are understood better by the babies with hearing aids which provide them the opportunity to learn speech skills without much delay.
• The other assistive devices which may help you with hearing loss comprise of the FM System, text messaging, telephone amplifiers, flashing and vibrating alarms, audio loop systems, infrared listening devices, portable sound amplifiers, text telephone or teletypewriter.

Surgery

Sensorineural hearing loss treatment with surgical intervention involves the use of cochlear and auditory brainstem implants. There are two chief components of cochlear and auditory brainstem implants which include the components that are located inside your cochlea or inner ear, and brainstem or base of the brain, during surgery, and the components that are carried outside your ear after surgery. The components located outside the ear transmit sounds to the inner components.

• In case you have severe to profound hearing loss, a cochlear implant may provide relief to your problem. It is also effective in very young children. It does not magnify or make sounds louder rather it sends sound signals directly to the hearing nerve.
• In case you have hearing loss due to an absent or very small hearing nerve or highly abnormal inner ear or cochlea, then the auditory brainstem implant is your best bet. It is used when a hearing aid or cochlear implant does not give relief. The hearing pathways in the brainstem are directly stimulated by auditory brainstem implant, bypassing the inner ear and hearing nerve.

Conductive Hearing Loss Treatment

Conductive hearing loss treatment also depends on the cause and severity of hearing loss similar to sensorineural hearing loss treatment, although the treatments vary. The treatment options are medical, non-invasive therapy or hearing assistance devices, and surgery.

Medical

The conductive hearing loss treatment in children and adults is based on the treatment of underlying cause and requires medical intervention initially. Conductive hearing loss due to middle ear infection or fluid build-up is treated with antibiotics and pain killers.

Non-invasive therapy and hearing assistance devices    

The conducting hearing loss treatment for advanced cases of hearing loss involves the use of a bone-conduction hearing aid, or a conventional hearing aid, according to the status of hearing loss.

Surgery

The conductive hearing loss treatment with surgical intervention involves the correction of various conditions related to the outer and middle ear and the use of bone-anchored and cochlear implants. Surgery may correct conductive hearing loss due to:

• the congenital absence of ear canal or failure of the ear canal to be open at birth
• congenital absence, malformation of the middle ear structures
• dysfunction of the middle ear structures resulting from head trauma and otosclerosis
• perforation of ear drum due to recurrent otitis media
• bone-anchored implants and cochlear implants provide relief in profound hearing loss

You must address your hearing loss as early as possible and seek appropriate treatment. We offer a broad collection of hearing aids and devices to assist you in your specific hearing needs and make your life better.