Can One Restore Their Hearing?

Be it naturally, surgically, or with the help of hearing aids, many wonder if their hearing can be restored after a loss. The simple answer is, it depends. You first need to identify what caused your loss. In our previous post, we focused on noise-induced hearing loss. While that may be one of the more popular causes, there are a variety of factors to consider. Some others include genetics, injury, ear infections, tinnitus, wax, and obviously age. Recognizing the contributing factors for your loss is essential to finding the solution. Below are ways in which you may be able to improve your hearing.

1. Naturally
New research shows that certain supplements, vitamins, and minerals can be used to improve hearing. While this is not my area of expertise, let me clarify this statement. There is a difference between improving and curing hearing loss. Once you have damaged hair cells, those are not regenative. If you are looking to use natural methods to improve your hearing, the sooner you start the better. Note that supplements are not an instant cure. The most common, and possibly easiest, way that I recommend to improve your hearing is to remove ear wax. If you suffer from muffled hearing, the culprit could simply be wax. Q-tips are not recommended for removing wax as they can puncture your eardrum. We give out free wax cleaning kits to our patients to use at home. You can purchase them about anywhere!

2. Surgerically
If the loss is conductive, that is, caused by a problem with the ear canal, ear drum, bones behind the ear or middle ear cavity, there is a good chance that it could be treated surgically. Conductive hearing loss is caused by a problem with sound waves getting from the air around us to the cochlea. A sound wave travels through the ear canal, eardrum, and middle ear bones before going to the cochlea. Any problem along that pathway will dampen the sound wave and cause hearing loss. A long list of problems can cause conductive hearing loss, ranging from the above mentioned earwax impaction to a tumor behind the eardrum. Popular surgical treatments, either tympanoplasty or mastoidectomy, involve removing a cyst from the ear and rebuilding the eardrum. A stapedotomy is another surgical procedure in which the stapes and incus, both bones in the middle ear, are separated. A hole is made in the footplate of the stapes. Through this hole an artificial prosthesis called a stapes piston is inserted and connected to the incus, thus restoring the transmission of sound waves to the cochlea.

What about a cochlear implant? As opposed to the above treatments for conductive hearing loss, cochlear implants restore hearing to people with severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss who do not achieve benefit from hearing aids. They can be performed in patients ranging from adults down to children. Cochlear implants are devices that have an external processor connected to a coil of electrodes which are surgically implanted directly into the cochlea. The external processor converts sound waves into electrical impulses and sends them to the coil within the cochlea. Directly stimulating the cochlear nerve, sound is now produced.

3. Hearing Aids
As you have probably noticed, hearing loss is categorized into two main types:conductive and sensorineural. A conductive hearing loss is caused by a barrier or hiccup in the transporting of sound waves. On the other hand, if the hearing loss is due to changes in the nerves it is a sensorineural hearing loss. With this, there is no surgical, medical or alternative treatment that will improve the hearing once it is lost. This is the most common type of loss, often associated with aging, and most cases are compensated well by hearing aids. Now you might groan at the idea of hearing aids. Maybe you think they are too expensive, they hurt, do not work well, or maybe you dislike how they look. Hearing aids have changed drastically over the past decade, and I guarantee the technology is only getting better. Researchers are always finding ways to improve. In the coming weeks I will be putting together multiple posts to address these concerns. Additionally, I would like to do a couple posts about specific brands and styles of hearing aids that may interest you. In the mean time, if you have any questions you would like to see addressed, feel free to leave them in the comments below!