Hearing impairment is the inability to hear, which is commonly found in almost all ages of people, from children to adult. Hearing loss affects more than 500 million people across the Globe and the number continues to grow. People with hearing loss in Perth have a problem in listening and people with mild hearing loss might find difficulty in understanding speech, especially if there is a lot of noise around.
There are two types of hearing loss:
1. Sensorineural
2. Conductive
It is also possible to have both mixed hearing loss.
Sensorineural hearing loss
This type of hearing loss is due to the problem of the inner ear, also known as nerve-related hearing loss.It results in damage to hair cells within cochlea, which leads to sudden deafness and loss of hearing in one ear. Exposure to loud sound regularly might be reason for temporary deafness. Most of the time, sensorineural hearing loss is the reason for ototoxic drugs. Some medicines are harmful for cochlea (hearing nerve).
Some infectious diseases, including Rubella, head injury, tumours on the auditory nerve can also cause hearing loss. An individual with this type of hearing loss will struggle to understand what the other person is to him/her. Sensorineural hearing loss is irreversible and there is no cure for it.
Conductive hearing loss
This type of hearing loss in Perth is due to problems with the ear canal, eardrum, or middle ear and its little bones (the malleus, incus, and stapes). The sound doesn’t pass freely in the inner ear resulting from blockage in the outer or middle ear due to excessive ear wax or fluid from an ear infection (especially common in children). Conductive hearing loss occurs due to congenital absence of the ear canal, abnormality in the structure of the earor ruptured eardrum. The abnormal growth of bone in the middle of the ear known as otosclerosis can cause severe hearing loss.The extra bone prevents the ossicles present in the middle ear to move freely.
