Hearing loss can occur for many reasons, ranging from loud noise exposure to aging and otosclerosis. Otosclerosis is a condition caused by abnormal bone remodeling in the middle ear. Throughout your life, your bones are constantly in the process of renewal. As old bone tissue breaks down, new bone tissue grows in its place. Hearing loss can arise when new bone tissue grows abnormally and blocks or disrupts the path of sound through your ear canal.
How Does Hearing Work?
Although hearing happens in an imperceptibly small amount of time, the journey from its source to your brain happens in many steps.
When someone speaks to you or birds chirp in the trees of Lincoln Park, the noises create vibrations. These vibrations create sound waves that travel through the air and into the outer ear. Once the sound has entered the outer ear, it travels through the ear canal and into the eardrum, causing the eardrum to vibrate. The vibrations travel to the middle ear, where they’re amplified by the stapes, malleus and incus bones and sent to the cochlea. The vibrations send ripples through the cochlea fluid, causing tiny hair cells within the cochlea to move. As the hair cells move, they send electrical signals to the brain’s auditory center, resulting in sound.
When otosclerosis blocks sound from traveling past the middle ear, you cannot perceive it as you normally would, resulting in signs of hearing loss. Luckily, hearing aids are an excellent treatment option.
How Can Hearing Aids Help?
Over 3 million Americans have otosclerosis. Although hearing aids cannot stop otosclerosis from progressing, they can collect and amplify speech and other noises to help you hear better. In addition to helping you hear your friends and family, hearing aids can help manage tinnitus, suppress unwanted background noise, improve your balance and more.
Hearing aids take a few weeks to acclimate to. Identifying your hearing loss early on can help you speed up your path to treatment. A few common signs of hearing loss to keep an eye out for include but are not limited to:
- Struggling to hear children’s voices or other high-pitched sounds
- Needing to turn the TV or radio up louder than is comfortable for others
- Shying away from social situations because you’re worried about understanding others
- Misunderstanding words or phrases in conversation
- Needing to turn your head to your “better side” to hear
Keeping an eye on the signs of hearing loss and seeking treatment early are two great ways to minimize otosclerosis’s impact on your life. To learn more about starting treatment, contact North Shore Audio-Vestibular Lab today to make an appointment with one of our specialists.