Hearing Loss

The inner ear is full of fine hair-like cells, replete with nerve endings, within a spiral-shaped organ called the cochlea. These tiny hair cells collect information from sound vibrations coming in from the middle ear and transmit those vibrations into nerve impulses, via the auditory nerve, to your brain. The brain processes and interprets these nerve impulses as sound in the auditory cortex, allowing us to hear sounds around us.

If you are experiencing hearing loss, it means that one of the above sections isn’t working correctly. Our hearing evaluation is designed to diagnose which type of hearing loss is present, and enables us to offer a range of treatment plans that are most appropriate for you.

Now that you understand how a healthy ear functions, let’s discover the three types of hearing loss and how they are caused.

It seems like we all know someone who has hearing loss—whether or not that someone has started treating their hearing loss is another story. But why is this? The impact of unaddressed hearing loss influences almost every aspect of the human experience.

It can negatively affect aspects of our communication, cognition, education, and social life. Hearing loss is a pervasive problem. It affects approximately 430 million people worldwide, including 50 million individuals in the United States alone.  

Did you know?

• 1 out of every 3 adults over the age of 65 have some degree of hearing loss
• Those with even mild hearing loss are twice as likely to develop dementia and this likelihood increases with higher degrees of hearing loss
• Hearing loss is twice as common in people with diabetes and there is a high correlation between hearing loss and cardiovascular disease
• Hearing loss occurs in 90% of tinnitus cases
• 22 million Americans are exposed to hazardous noise levels at work
• Hearing-related issues are the most common service-connected disability among American veterans
  

Early identification is essential. Schedule a comprehensive hearing evaluation with an audiologist near you to learn more about your hearing status. Effective management could reduce the long-term effects of the adverse impacts associated with hearing loss.

You know the old saying: “if a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it still make a sound?” Well, the short answer is…yes it does.  Let me explain why.

Humans hear in a series of simple steps in which sound waves from the air are converted into electrical signals sent up to our brain. To better understand this process, you have to understand the anatomy and physiology or your ears. There are three main components of the peripheral hearing system (AKA the human ear)—the outer, middle, and inner ear.

Outer ear. The outer ear contains the pinna, ear canal, and eardrum. Sound waves are really just vibrations in the air around us. These vibrations enter the outer ear, funnel down the ear canal, and make the eardrum vibrate.

Middle ear. This air-filled cavity is home to the three smallest bones in your body—the malleus, incus, and stapes. Vibrations from the eardrum are sent down a chain created middle ear bones. These bones amplify the sound vibrations and send them to the cochlea.

Inner ear. Your inner ear contains the cochlea, which is your hearing organ. The cochlea is a snail-shaped structure filled with fluid. Inside of that fluid is a membrane that moves up and down in response to the vibrations sent from the middle ear bones. Along that membrane, there are tiny microscopic hair cells. These hair cells detect the sound wave vibrations travelling along the membrane and convert them into electrical impulses. The auditory nerve carries that electrical signal up to the brain where the sound is actually heard.

That is the process of how a human hears. To bring it back to the story about the tree, sound is simply a vibration.  This vibration of sound can travel through Water, Solids, or Air.  However, in order for that sound to be heard, particularly by a human, the vibration will have to travel through our auditory system.