Hearing Aids and Hearing Loss

from National Institutes of Health

How Hearing Aids work

A Hearing Aid is an electronic, battery-operated device that amplifies and changes sound to allow for improved communication. Hearing Aids receive sound through a microphone, which then converts the sound waves to electrical signals. The Hearing Aid's amplifier increases the loudness of the signals and then sends the sound to the ear through a speaker.

How Common Is Hearing Loss and What Causes Hearing Loss?
Approximately 28 million Americans have a hearing impairment. Hearing Loss is one of the most prevalent chronic health conditions in the United States, affecting people of all ages, in all segments of the population, and across all socioeconomic levels. Hearing Loss affects approximately 17 in 1,000 children under age 18. Incidence increases with age: approximately 314 in 1,000 people over age 65 have Hearing Loss.

Hearing Loss can be hereditary, from disease, trauma, or long-term exposure to damaging noise or even certain medications. Hearing Loss can vary from a mild but important loss of sensitivity, to a total loss of hearing.

Your hearing depends on the following series of events that change sound waves in the air into electrical impulses that your auditory (hearing) nerve carries directly to your brain. Your ear has three major parts, commonly know as the outer ear, middle ear, and inner ear.

Sound waves enter the outer ear (pinna) and travel through a narrow tube (ear canal) that leads inside the ear to your eardrum (tympanic membrane). Your eardrum will vibrate from the incoming sound waves and transmit these vibrations through 3 tiny bones called the ossicles (incus, stapes and malleus) in your middle ear. They amplify the sound and send it through the entrance to your inner ear (oval window) and into the cochlea (its the fluid-filled hearing organ).
The vibrations create ripples in the fluid that bend projections from tiny hair cells in the cochlea, causing electrical impulses that the auditory nerve, or eighth cranial nerve, sends to the brain.
Your will brain translate these impulses into what we know as sounds.

There are different types of Hearing Loss. Conductive Hearing Loss occurs when sound waves are prevented from passing to the inner ear. This can be caused by a variety of problems including buildup of earwax (cerumen), infection, fluid in the middle ear (ear infection or otitis media), or a punctured eardrum. Sensorineural (nerve) Hearing Loss develops when the auditory nerve or hair cells in the inner ear are damaged by aging, noise, illness, injury, infection, head trauma, toxic medications, or an inherited condition. Mixed Hearing Loss is a combination of both conductive and sensorineural Hearing Loss. A conductive Hearing Loss can often be corrected with medical or surgical treatment, while sensorineural Hearing Loss usually cannot be reversed.

People with Hearing Loss may experience some or all of the following problems:

Difficulty hearing conversations, especially when there is background noise.
Hissing, roaring, or ringing in the ears (tinnitus).
Difficulty hearing the television or radio at a normal volume.
Fatigue and irritation caused by the effort to hear.
Dizziness or problems with balance.

How Can I Find Out if I Have Hearing Loss?
If you think you might have Hearing Loss, check out Lloyds Hearing Aids, for a FREE Hearing Test.

Lloyds Hearing Aids may refer you to an otolaryngologist or audiologist. An otolaryngologist is a physician who specializes in ear, nose, and throat disorders, and will investigate the cause of the Hearing Loss. An audiologist is a hearing health professional who identifies and measures Hearing Loss and will perform a Hearing test to assess the type and degree of Hearing Loss.