There are different treatments to alleviate and treat the effects of deafness or hearing loss. Its application depends on the injury’s origin, causes, and characteristics that caused the deafness or hearing loss.
Hearing Aids
Their main objective is to amplify the sounds that are difficult to hear and make the world more audible without causing discomfort in the patient. It is necessary to listen to a stimulus or sound of greater intensity in order to hear when you have hearing loss. In addition to increasing the signal’s power, it is essential to provide the auditory signal with individualized qualities personalized for the individual’s unique hearing condition and ability. Hearing aids are usually recommended for moderate to profound hearing loss.
Depending on the degree of hearing loss, your hearing care professional should be able to determine the hearing aid most appropriate for your hearing condition.
Behind-the-Ear Hearing Aids (BTE)
These are hearing aids behind the ear with a speaker or receiver within the ear canal. The sound is sent through a discreet wire, as fine as a hair, to an earphone seated in the ear canal, near the eardrum. A small protrusion or a unique mold holds the headset in place.They have a larger battery that can support a larger amplifier, making them more robust and more ideal for people with severe to profound hearing loss.
Hearing Aids Inside The Ear Canal
Hearing aids within the ear canal are customized to the canal’s shape and ideal for mild to moderate hearing losses, rather than more severe or profound hearing loss. The size and shape of the ear canal will determine how visible these hearing aids will or won’t be when being used.
Microchannel hearing aids (CIC) settle in the deepest part of the ear canal.
Intra-channel Hearing Aids (ITE) settle in the outermost part of the external auditory canal.
Technology in hearing aids has advanced rapidly, and today they are capable of doing much more than they were a few years ago.
Cochlear Implants
These implantable devices were created to help individuals with profound hearing loss to help improve the ability to hear and understand speech through surgical intervention.
The cochlear implant is a small electronic device that stimulates your cochlear nerve, which is responsible for helping you hear. Cochlear implants are composed of two different parts, an external part that sits behind the ear that picks up sound with a microphone and sends it to the internal part of the implant. The electrical impulses are sent through a bundle of electrodes into the cochlea (inner ear), which then sends information to the brain to allow us to experience sound. The cochlear implant is only prescribed for severe or profound hearing loss.
Surgical treatment
There are some cases where surgery is needed to fix the inner workings of the ear, which include abnormalities of the eardrum or bones for hearing, also known as ossicles.
Otosclerosis is an example of a condition where surgery would be necessary. In the case of otosclerosis, the condition causes the bones and tissue in the middle ear to harden and to become stuck. This prevents the bones from vibrating and from sending sound through the ear.
The procedure to address this issue is called stapedectomy. This procedure removes the stapes (ossicle bone) and implants a prosthesis that conducts sound vibrations to your inner ear in hopes of restoring your hearing.
Complementary Therapies
Auditory Rehabilitation: There is evidence that hearing rehabilitation programs that are implemented as an add-on treatment to hearing aids represent significant improvements compared to the exclusive use of hearing aids.
Auditory Training: In auditory analytical training, speech is broken down into parts (consonants and vowels) to improve discrimination between them to help you better distinguish them from each other.
Group Hearing Rehabilitation: Unlike individual auditory training programs, they are based on communication strategies to better deal with complex hearing situations like dining at a restaurant, socializing with friends, and family gatherings.
Try AudioCardio To Strengthen Your Hearing
AudioCardio™ is a mobile app that delivers an evidence-based sound therapy designed to maintain and strengthen your hearing by stimulating the cells inside your ear just below the audible level. It’s like physical therapy for your hearing.
AudioCardio is a technology company focused on hearing health and wellness. Learn how AudioCardio can help maintain and strengthen your hearing with your favorite headphones or hearing aids at www.audiocardio.com.
