Permanent hearing loss is also known as Sensorineural hearing loss and it occurs in approximately 90% of patients who are diagnosed with hearing loss (https://www.hearingloss.com/hearing-loss-overview). This means it cannot be medically or surgically treated. It is the most common type of hearing loss found today. Sensorineural hearing loss occurs when the hair cells in the inner ear and or hearing nerve have become damaged and cannot transmit signals to the brain.
While the causes of hearing loss can vary, they include noise exposure, medications, trauma, genetic predisposition, aging, trauma or sudden loss can be due to a virus or infection. New studies have revealed links to hearing loss related to obesity and smoking.
Symptoms of sensorineural hearing loss can include:
- Lack of clarity or understanding of sentences
- Feeling like people are mumbling
- Difficulty with female voices
- Turning up the TV volume, but still not understanding the speech clearly
- Asking people to repeat themselves
- Difficulty understanding speech in poor acoustic environments, such as restaurants or parties
It is important to understand your specific hearing loss. By better understanding your hearing loss, you will gain new insights into why you think people are mumbling, why you can” hear” but cannot understand, why you have difficulty with female voices and the other questions you have been asking yourself for so long. Sensorineural hearing loss can be treated by the use of prescribed digital hearing aids to hear what you’ve been missing.
