Different Types of Hearing Loss

Hearing loss can be caused by many things, some include:

• Too much earwax
• Loud or prolonged noise exposure
• Aging
• Getting an object stuck in the ear
• Or in rare cases an underlying disease

One in eight people in the US suffers from hearing loss.

Hearing loss can be an event or can be a decrease in how well you can hear. Hearing loss ranges from mild to severe, temporary or permanent. Gradual hearing loss can be found in people of all ages. Hearing loss is most common in adults, and it is due to age and exposure to different noises.

Hearing loss sometimes is misunderstood and the effects may cause behavior in others such as inattention, standoffishness, confusion, dementia, or even a change in personality.

Let’s first look at Conductive Hearing Loss

It involves the outer and middle ear. This occurs when sound has a hard time getting through the outer and middle parts of the ear. Soft sounds are harder to hear and the louder sounds may sound more muffled. Sometimes this can be cured by medicine or surgery.

Most of the time when sound passes in the ear canal to the eardrum where it is transmitted across the middle ear to the inner ear by three small bones called the ossicles.  Conductive hearing loss results if there is a  mechanical problem in transmitting the sound from the outer and middle ear to the inner ear.

What are some of the Causes of Conductive Hearing Loss?

• Earwax (cerumen) or a foreign object stuck in your ear canal
• Otitis externa - outer ear infection or inflammation, sometimes called “swimmer’s ear”
• Abnormality in the outer or middle ear –  from heredity or injury, including head trauma
• Benign tumors blocking the outer or middle ear
• Perforation of the eardrum - holes in the eardrum from trauma, pressure, or infection
• Otitis media - infection or inflammation in the middle ear
• Fluid in your middle ear from colds or allergies or otitis media
• Eustachian tube function – this tube connects your middle ear and your nose to drain fluid from the middle ear
• Otosclerosis - changes in the ossicles (small bones) in the middle ear