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Leading Causes of Hearing Loss
Adults
- Excessive noise exposure
- Presbycusis-aging process
- Heredity
- Vascular and circulatory disorders
- Tumors and other space occupying lesions
Children
- Middle Ear Problems
Before the age of six, 90% of all children in the United States will suffer from Otitis Media, which is more often known as a Middle Ear Infection. - Congenital
- Craniofacial Anomalies
- Family history of hearing loss
- Congenital infections
Other
- Bacterial Meningitis
- Head trauma
- Ototoxic medications
- Childhood infectious diseases, such as mumps and measles
Types of hearing loss
Sensorineural hearing loss
A sensorineural hearing loss is a permanent hearing loss which has been caused by damage to the sensory area of the inner ear (cochlear) or the neural region (auditory nerve). It can be as a result of a congenital abnormality or acquired later in life.
As a result of this type of loss, not only are the loudness of sounds reduced, the clarity of the sounds and especially speech is diminished.
Causes of acquired sensorineural hearing loss include:
• the ageing process
• excessive noise exposure
• diseases such as meningitis and Meniere's disease
• viruses, such as mumps and measles
• drugs which can damage the hearing system
• head injuries.
Conductive hearing loss
A conductive hearing loss is caused by problems in the middle or outer ear. The loudness of sounds are reduced and can often be helped by medical or surgical treatment. This type of loss can also be as a result of a congenital abnormality or acquired later in life.
Some of the causes of conductive hearing losses are:
• foreign body or wax blocking the ear canal
• perforated tympanic membrane (ear drum)
• otitus externa - outer ear infection
• otitis media - middle ear infection, ‘glue ear’
• otosclerosis, a hereditary condition where bone grows around the stapes bone in the middle ear
• head trauma, causing damage to the ossicular chain (disconnecting the incus, malleus and stapes)
Mixed hearing loss
A mixed hearing loss is a combination causes - partially sensorineural hearing loss and partially conductive hearing loss.