Pay attention to senile hearing loss, no time to delay!
Older hearing loss is most common among older people over the age of 55. The condition develops year after year and both ears are affected. Patients often feel that high-frequency sounds like phone ring tones or bird calls are hard to hear. At the beginning, the patient felt that it was laborious to make a phone call, or the conversation in a noisy environment could not be heard. Patient family and friends will also complain that the TV sound is too loud, or that the conversation needs to be repeated multiple times.
Causes
Most people suffer from a certain degree of hearing loss as they get older. According to the survey, more than half of the elderly over the age of 60 suffer from a certain degree of hearing loss. The exact cause is not clear. The main cause of senile hearing loss is dysfunction or damage of nerve cells. The nerve cells in the inner ear are responsible for converting sound into neural signals and transmitting them to the brain. When a large number of nerve cells are damaged, hearing loss occurs, and most people are not completely deaf. The degree of hearing loss will vary from age to age. The main causes of nerve cell damage include: Arteriosclerosis - Hardening of the arteries and stenosis reduces the amount of blood supplied to the cochlea. Heart disease, high blood pressure or diabetes can also cause hearing loss to worsen. Long-term exposure to noisy environments Prolonged exposure to hazardous chemicals Long-term medication smokes Genetic
How to prevent it?
Aging is an inevitable trend in the life process of human beings. Long-term exposure to large doses of noise can make the symptoms of senile hearing loss worse. Therefore, noise protection earmuffs should be worn when working in noisy environments; excessive noise should be avoided during leisure (such as listening to loud music for a long time). Healthy exercise, scientific diet, and distance from tobacco can help reduce the chance of senile hearing loss. Unhealthy lifestyles lead to increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and other diseases, and also increase the probability of hearing loss. Blockage of ear wax can also make hearing loss worse. Therefore, we recommend that you regularly check and clean your earwax.
Treatment of senile hearing loss?
If the patient is mildly hearing loss, as long as they are in daily life, let the talker speak more clearly. If the hearing loss is gradually deepened, you need to choose a hearing aid. There are several types of hearing aids depending on the way you wear them. The most common one is the behind-the-ear hearing aid.
Can the hearing aid restore my hearing to normal?
Although modern hearing aids are of good quality and small in size, there is no guarantee that your hearing will return to normal. After wearing the hearing aid, the sound is amplified, the background noise is also amplified, and it feels very noisy. Many people give up wearing it shortly after fitting. But once you are familiar with it, your quality of life will be greatly improved. It is recommended that you gradually adapt to wear and maintenance under the guidance of a professional fitter.
Is there any other way besides wearing a hearing aid?
Many hearing-impaired patients instinctively perform lip reading to help with speech understanding. Lip reading can be learned. In addition, some hearing aids can also help you, for example: elephone sound amplifier. A phone designed for the hearing loss. A facility that alerts the hearing impaired when the phone or doorbell rings. Smoke detectors, alarm clocks, etc. when lighting or equipment. Help you listen to TV, radio, stereo and more. Raising a hearing dog (similar to a guide dog)
Cochlear implant
For severe hearing loss, if the hearing aid is not effective, consider a cochlear implant. Its external microphone is responsible for collecting the sound, converting the sound into an electrical signal, and then transmitting it through the skin to the internally implanted cochlea. Even if the cochlea is damaged, the cochlear implant activates the auditory nerve. The brain collects signals from the auditory nerves and then hears the sound. The National Institute of Health and Healthcare Medicine recommends that the implantation of a cochlear implant can improve hearing in patients with severe hearing loss.
Electronic acoustic stimulation
Combine hearing aids with a cochlear implant to help you take advantage of existing low frequency hearing, and artificial implants can replace lost high frequencies. Combining the two can help understand the language.
Middle ear artificial implant
The middle ear implant can vibrate the middle ear structure, especially for the loss of moderate and severe hearing patients who cannot improve hearing through hearing aids.
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