Hearing Impairment: Treatment, Procedure, Cost and Side Effects

Hearing impairment is also called hearing loss or deafness, and occurs when you lose part or all of your ability to hear. Hearing Impairment or deafness is usually caused as a result of inner ear or neural damage, which may be caused by a congenital defect or injury or disease or is a side effect of a certain medication, exposure to loud noise or is a age related wear and tear.

The primary symptom in hearing impairment is an inability to hear sound, and for some, hearing may be possible with the help of surgery or a hearing device. Lip-reading skills, written or printed text and sign language often help with communication.

The condition can be treated with a cochlear implant, a device which is surgically implanted inside the ear which enables a deaf person to hear sounds.

The most common mode to treat hearing loss or deafness is to add a hearing aid. A hearing aid device is applied to the outer ear which amplifies more sound and improves hearing.

The treatment mainly depends on the type of hearing loss. Sensor Neural Hearing Loss is the most common hearing impairment or hair loss syndrome caused due to exposure to loud music or noise, head trauma, virus or disease, autoimmune inner ear disease, genetic hearing loss, aging (presbycusis) and malformation in the inner ear.

Addition of a conductive component generally tends to help a person to hear better hearing or may get help out an audiogram by underlying sensor neural component which presented a high-frequency loss.

Visiting an ENT specialist (ear, nose, throat) is the first step is recommended would ensure that the treatment is done on a proper basis. The doctor will carry out the required tests and will help to determine the exact cause of hair loss. The treatment will run in a systematic manner and can be administered immediately. This is followed by the next set of tests and which are simple, but will vary in case there is an infection inside in the ear, or has the impairment caused due to some other reason and this is where the treatment steps tends to vary.

If there is any other problem other than the hearing loss or deafness caused due to other reason, or if some amount of swelling inside the ear or any abscess in the area, your doctor will initially assess the damage.

Some of the doctors prefer oral medication and certain exercises to be done before they start working on the cause. As the hearing impairment tends to have several types of symptoms, the doctor will start with the most suitable treatment. In case of injured inner ear structures, the doctor wait for the ruptured parts to heal. In case of Sensor Neural hearing loss, which can occur from a head trauma or abrupt changes in air pressure, which can cause inner ear fluid compartment rupture or leakage and can result to be toxic to the inner ear, doctors may treat it with emergency surgery.

Speech therapists are recommended for specialisation in voice rehabilitation, but at a later stage.

As with the most of the case of almost all medications, there will be certain side effects that you should be vary of. Though hearing loss cannot be reversed completely, medicinal treatment or a surgery can have effects on your body. If you are allergic to any substance, it is best to discuss that with your doctor, so in case of medications, the doctor can prescribe medicines so that the medications that does not contain the allergen.

Though in case a hearing aid is used, the side effects almost run to zero, but wireless radiations may cause some disturbance.

Initial hearing loss treatments can last anywhere between 20-40 days if a surgery is done or if the patient has to go through routine oral medications. As you continue to take your medications, you can notice a gradual decrease in the symptoms on a daily basis until it is fully recovered. But for a permanent hearing loss, it will probably never recover, and one has to depend on the hearing aid for the rest of his/her life

The prices of hearing aids range from very low to quite high in India, and primarily depends on the size and quality of the device. They can range in price from Rs. 300 to Rs 50,000 and even above. The same goes for any oral medication that you might be taking in order to treat ear pain, but will be relatively cheaper.

The results of being permanent depends on the type of deafness. In most of the cases, the hearing loss cannot be reversed. If your hear loss is a result of some other different condition you may have, treating the loss alone will only work for a short period of time. If pain is there, it will take days or weeks, the pain is will return to alert you of whatever condition you may be suffering from, though the generic ear pain treatment results are usually permanent.