subject: When a patient can't hear the doorbell ring,there may be damage in the inner ear [print this page] When a patient can't hear the doorbell ring,there may be damage in the inner ear
The higher frequencies are usually affected in sensorineural loss. The person has difficulty in hearing high frequency consants like f,th,and s.This person cannot hear the difference between the words thin,fin, pin, shin, sin, skin. The person may also fail to hear a high pitched doorbell, a telephone ringing, or the signal lights in a car.
Organic Hearing Loss
Organic disorders involve physical damage to the hearing mechanism, neural pathways or the brain. Recruitment is a characteristic of many sensorineural cochlear losses.
Recruitment occurs when a small increase in sound intensity results in a rapid increase in apparent loudness. A person with recruitment may barely be able to hear a sound of moderate intensity , but a sound of slightly greater intensity seems unbearably loud.
Tinnitus
Tinnitus is often present in combination with sensorineural hearing losses and usually precedes it. IKt is described as a high frequency or buzzing noise. Tinnitus can be heard in one ear only, usually the ear with the greatest loss. It may be present in the other ear too, but is not noticed until the tinnitus is reduced on the loudest side. Amplification with a hearing instrument may reduce or eliminate the tinnitus. A hearing instrument is not a cure for tinnitus, the tinnitus returns when the hearing instrument is removed.
Vertigo
Vertigo is a hallucination of movement, arising from problems within the vestibular portion of the inner ear. The world spins about the patient, or the patient feels that there is moving in space. Dizziness is a giddy or swimming sensation, and is not vertigo. Any disorder, tumor, infection or traumacausing a unilateral decrease in vestibular function may cause vertigo. Vertigo is common in Menieres syndrome and in central disorders such as epoilepsy, multiple sclerosis, strokes, tumors,i.e, acoustic neuroma and anemia.
Acoustic Trauma
Also causes sensorineural loss. The inner ear is traumatized by exposure to a single very loud sound, explosion, or high noise levels for a long time.
Noise Induced Hearing Loss
Is a sensorineural loss resulting from exposure to high noise levels. The exposure may be work related, or recreational. Industry is much more aware of the problems caused by noisy work environments. Regular hearing tests are carried out to establish the hearing thresholds of employees.
Temporary Threshold Shift
Also known as auditory fatigue, is a reversible drop in hearing thresholds from noise exposure.
