subject: Hair Cells And Hearing Loss In Adults [print this page] What exactly are hair cells, and how can these tiny things make such a big difference in your daily life? When it comes to hearing loss, there are a million different ways that your ability to hear and distinguish sounds can be affected for the worse. The main solution, and the one most people know about for most types of loss is quite simply the hearing aid. These devices are extremely useful to improve comprehension of sounds and speech, and to help the wearer distinguish various sounds from background noise. These devices are the most effective in loss that is caused by damage to hair cells, or small, sensory cells located within the inner ear. Also known as sensorineural hearing loss, there are many things that cause this kind of damage. Principally, age factors into the equation, but there can be other provoking factors including injury, overexposure to loud noise, disease, or even some medicines in some people.
It is generally up to these hair cells to detect vibrations that come into the ear, meaning that the regular vibrations can be too small to be picked up by any remaining hair cells. When a hearing aid interferes and magnifies the size of the sound vibrations, the hair cells that remain are able to detect larger vibrations. The brain is then able to distinguish sounds once more and the effect is that the wearer can hear, as the waves are made into neural signals. As the damage to these hair cells is worse, the worse the persons ability to hear, and the more power that is needed to increase the waves to an audible level. Unfortunately, for a person with no or next to no hair cells left, the result is total deafness. Some people may even have uneven loss, meaning that one ear might benefit from a hearing aid, while the other simply is unable to detect sounds anymore.
For those out there who like to avoid doctors and medical professionals in general, unfortunately there is no good way to know the extent of the damage you have without visiting one. However, visiting and audiologist or otolaryngologist will help you to know exactly what kind of hearing loss you suffer from, and therefore the best possible way to combat it either through technology, or even alternatives like medicines, surgeries and more. With new and developing technologies coming out all the time which make medical technology cheaper and more effective, the next 10 to 20 years should bring interesting changes and developments. Proper care and identification is essential to proper treatment, so to help your ears to hear the best they possibly can, and to help your life get back on track, theres no better way to get started. Many such devices today are completely externally invisible, and as such theres no need to worry about aesthetic pitfalls or embarrassment. The only thing to do is to start to hear once more with the hair cells you still have, and to get back your ability to thrive and communicate in a hearing world!
