subject: How Gene Therapy Can Treat Hearing Loss [print this page] A lot of people take their sense of hearing for granted believing that it will never go away. Regardless what people think, hearing disorders can affect people of any age, gender or race.
A person first needs to know what the cause of hearing loss is, so as to avoid it, then find out what can be done if already been afflicted.
When it comes to birth defects, hearing loss is not a stranger as every three babies have it out of every 1,000 babies. It also doesn?t matter how old you are as both children and adults are susceptible to losing their hearing.
Other causes are a person's genetics, a person's medicine and others as well.
A person who is subjected to loud environmental noises day in and day out is likely to lose their sense of hearing. Airports, construction sites, concerts are all environments with very loud noises that can damage a person.
Other damaging environmental noise includes car stereos, power tools, gun use and even the use of hair dryers.
Depending on the form of hearing impairment, a speciailist will most likely prescribed the use of hearing aids to treat it. There is also no shortage in the kinds of hearing aids available as there are at the least 10 different classifications. Hearing aids in general are simply amplifiers of sound to the person wearing it.
How and where exactly the hearing aid is supposed to be worn determines its classification. Hearing aids that are worn behind the ear and is made up of a case, tube and ear mold are called BTE aids.
The main advantage of using the BTE type of device is it is worn outside the ear so moisture, earwax does not impact the whole device only the earpiece which can be replaced at a substantially lower price than the whole device.
Cochlear implants are another type of hearing aid and this device is implanted into you to replace your malfunctioning cochlear. The cochlear implant is a device that needs to be surgically placed behind the ear and underneath the scalp area of a person.
The workings of this device is very complex as the device needs to pick up sounds, convert these into electronic impulses then sends these through electrodes into the brain.
Cochlear implants are made of a microphone, speech processor, transmitter, converter and electrodes. These implants cost an arm and a leg and are only provided for in medical centers in developed countries around the world.
The price isn't the only thing that will stop a person, as the hearing history, health, gender and so forth are checked before one is qualified for it.
Scientist and medical professionals are waiting for a new form of hearing treatment called gene therapy. A person doesn't have to worry about bulky hearing aids anymore, as gene therapy may one day allow people to grow new body parts.
Gene therapy is the hope of tomorrow and is still a new science today.
While prevention is still the best cure to hearing impairment, when hearing loss is unavoidable, these hearing treatments will provide you a glimpse of hope in recovering or managing it. Only a doctor can say for certain which hearing treatment should be used by a person. It is time you go have your hearing checked.
