Sensorineural Hearing Loss

A hearing test can help determine what type of hearing loss you have. The most common type of hearing loss is sensorineural. It is a permanent hearing loss that occurs when there is damage to either the tiny hair-like cells of the inner ear or the auditory nerve itself, which prevents or weakens the transfer of nerve signals to the brain. These blocked nerve signals carry information about the loudness and clarity of sounds.

Causes

If a child is born with sensorineural hearing loss, it is most likely due to a genetic syndrome or an infection passed from mother to foetus inside the womb, such as toxoplasmosis, rubella or herpes.
When sensorineural hearing loss develops later in life, which is more typical, it can be caused by a wide variety of triggers.

Most Common Causes:

− Normal aging (known medically as presbycusis)
− Extremely loud noises or noise exposure for an extended period of time

Less Common Causes

− Cardiovascular diseases
− Infections such as meningitis, mumps, scarlet fever and measles
− Meniere’s disease
− A side effect from medicines
− Acoustic neuroma or other cancerous growths in the inner ear
− Traumatic injuries that damage the inner ear or auditory nerve
− Autoimmune diseases

Symptoms

The symptoms of sensorineural hearing loss affect both the loudness and the clarity of sounds. For many people, they will have high frequency hearing loss, resulting in the following issues with hearing:
Speech of others may seem slurred or mumbled, or, a feeling of you can hear but not understand
− Difficulty following a conversation when two or more people are speaking at the same time
− A consistent ringing or buzzing in the ears (tinnitus)
− Problems listening in noisy environments (e.g. train stations, construction sites, convention centres, sports arenas, etc.)
− Difficulty hearing women's or children's voices and other high-pitched sounds
− Certain speech sounds are difficult to hear during conversations (e.g. the "s" or "th" sound)
− Noises may seem too loud or too quiet (yes, too loud!)
− A feeling of being off-balance or dizzy

Treatment

There is no medical or surgical method of repairing the tiny hair-like cells of the inner ear or the auditory nerve if they are damaged. However, sensorineural hearing loss can be treated with hearing aids or cochlear implants, depending on the severity of the loss. Assistive listening devices, like alerting devices, vibrating alarm clocks and captioned phones help provide a complete hearing solution. For people with severe-to-profound hearing loss, power hearing aids can help.