Learn about hearing impairment, and how commonly it occurs in those aged 65 and above.

Maintaining our balance and allowing us to hear are the two primary functions of our ears. Although our balance seldom fails us as we grow older our hearing, for almost all of us, does become impaired.

During our lives we all experience loud noises at times by accident, and we may even seek such damagingly intense sounds by attending loud music events or using headphones at sound levels which are unsafe. Whatever is the cause, most us us will experience a loss of hearing ability as we age. In fact, one of three adults over the age of 65 has a hearing loss and half of seniors over the age of 75 have a hearing loss. Such loss is commonly due to over-exposure to noise, heredity or both.

You are most likely to have hearing loss if you experience one or more of the following:-

1) If you notice everyone sounds muffled.

2) The words you think you have heard make no or little sense

3) Despite paying attention to a speaker you find you must repeatedly request that things be repeated more clearly

4) Often need to turn up the volume on your TV or radio.

Should you have answered yes to one or more of the above, we suspect that you will also be tending not to seek to engage in discussions when a number of people are involved, in the way you did once. If so, and both some of 1 to 4 above and this are true, then there is a very high possibility that you are suffering hearing loss. Damage within the cochlea is the most common cause of hearing difficulties. The cochlea is the coiled structure within the inner ear within which hearing takes place. Exposure to loud sounds, that is noise at above 85 decibels is damaging to the cochlea after a period of time. A common way to show decibels when written is to refer in text to ‘dBs’.

Other frequent causes of loss of hearing can be:-

1) Infections of the ear

2) Abnormal bone growths

3) Tumours of the outer or middle ear

4) Ear drum damage (usually by rupturing).

Auditory Neuropathy, Meniere’s Disease, Noise Ostosclerosis and Usher’s Syndrome, are other causes of full or partial deafness which can strike at any age.

In all just three basic three hearing impairments result, as follows:-

A) Conductive Loss of Hearing

In this type of hearing failure such problems as excess fluid build-up, earwax, disease, foreign particles or lack of proper formation of the middle or outer-ear parts all may take place, and the result is an inability of the outer ear to pass the sound vibrations into the sensing pint in the cochlea.

B) Sensor and or Neural Hearing Impairment

This type of hearing damage sounds complicated but is easily described as any defect in the inner-ear. Lumped ito this category are also all difficulties experienced within the brain in interpreting the sound signals when these are relayed neurally.

C) Combination of Hearing Problems

Combine A) and B) and as above, we now have our three possible types, now that we have included this possibility.

Of the three possible forms of hearing loss, this is the final type.

Whether hearing loss occurs in one or both ears, the extent of the deterioration in audible ability may be different in each ear, and may vary with time. Inner ear infections can cause a rapid onset of partial, or complete, deafness.

This article is not written by a qualified medic. On no account must this article be interpreted as advice, for which your medical expert or doctor must be approached for a resolution of your problem.

By Steve Last Published: 10/11/2007

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