Unfortunately a number of people are born with deafness or suffer from hearing loss in their lives. Here explained are 5 causes of hearing loss.
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1 Noise
Your hearing and ears can be damaged by loud sounds which is classed as noise induced hearing loss. This form of hearing loss is caused by acoustic trauma to the inner ear and in particular the cochlea. The small hairs in the ear that pick up vibrations become limp and less affective, thus reducing your capacity to hear.
The most common cause of this is work. Many people every day are exposed to excessive noise which is making them deaf. Their employer is required by law to protect them from these noises but they aren’t, leading to an increase in hearing loss claims. Another risk of this type of hearing loss is listening to music too loud, particularly due to personal music players.
2 Age
Ageing is the largest cause of hearing loss and happens gradually from as early as 30 years old. Because it can be gradual, it is usually not noticeable at first. By the age of 70 most people will be suffering from some degree of hearing loss and by 80 most will be suffering from severe deafness. Hearing loss due to ageing is referred to as presbyacusis and can be a result of lots of factors. Over the years parts of the inner workings of the ear become damaged and tired and thus deteriorate hearing.
3 Conductive hearing loss
This form of hearing loss happens when noise is not able travel into the inner ear. Obstructions block the passage that sound moves through and can be caused in various ways. These include infections, glue ear (a build up of fluid, common with children) and the most frequent is a build up of ear wax. Sound can be prevented to pass through the ear for other reasons than blockage including a perforated eardrum or ostosclerosis, which is an irregular growth of bone within the ear.
4 Illness
There are illnesses and diseases that you may think are completely unrelated to hearing but an adverse reaction to them can be hearing loss. Illnesses such as meningitis, a stroke and multiple sclerosis can all contribute to deafnesses as an added worry to their initial symptoms. As these illnesses affect nerves and or blood flow around the body and specifically the brain and ears, areas of the inner ear can be damaged. Mumps as an other example can damage the ear due to swelling.
5 Genetics
Hereditary defects in genes can result in hearing loss. Up to 2 in every 1,000 children are born with deafness. A person’s genetics can also increase the chance of them developing hearing loss in later life, be it any of the above causes.
It is very hard to establish if a child will be born deaf due to these genes as it has been known to skip generations. If your family has a history of hearing problems though, you are more likely to have a child who may develop hearing loss, even if you don’t.