Hearing Loss Essay Example
Who is affected by hearing loss?
Hearing loss is the most common physical disability in the whole wide world. In the United States alone, about 28 million people have some level of hearing impairment that interferes with their ability to understand normal speech and participate in conversations. Another 2 million cannot hear at all.
Age is the most common factor in increasing hearing loss. About 30 percent of people between 65 and 74 experience some difficulty in hearing. That percentage and the severity of the loss increase with age.
Younger people can develop hearing loss as well. Fourteen percent of people between the ages of 45 and 65, and another 8 million people between 18 and 44, suffer from some form of hearing impairment. A nationwide study that tested 6,166 children ages 6 to 19 estimated that 7 million children have some degree of hearing loss.
What are the major types of hearing loss?
There are two major types of hearing loss:
Conductive is related to how the ear gathers sound.
Sensorineural is related to how the nervous system transmits that sound to the brain.
Conductive
The outer ear gathers sound waves from the environment and funnels them into the ear canal. At the end of the canal, the waves hit the eardrum, causing it to vibrate. Three tiny bones in the middle ear conduct the vibrations from the eardrum to the cochlea (a spiral-shaped chamber that looks a bit like a snail) in the inner ear. If anything interferes with the transfer of sound waves up to this point, the resulting type of hearing loss is called conductive.Conductive hearing loss may be temporary or permanent. It can be caused by something as simple as a buildup of earwax or an ear infection.
Sensorineural
Problems ahead of this point lead to sensorineural hearing loss, also known as nerve deafness. Normally, the vibrations from the middle ear create waves in the fluid inside the cochlea. The waves in turn stimulate thousands of delicate hair cells that line the
Hearing loss is the most common physical disability in the whole wide world. In the United States alone, about 28 million people have some level of hearing impairment that interferes with their ability to understand normal speech and participate in conversations. Another 2 million cannot hear at all.
Age is the most common factor in increasing hearing loss. About 30 percent of people between 65 and 74 experience some difficulty in hearing. That percentage and the severity of the loss increase with age.
Younger people can develop hearing loss as well. Fourteen percent of people between the ages of 45 and 65, and another 8 million people between 18 and 44, suffer from some form of hearing impairment. A nationwide study that tested 6,166 children ages 6 to 19 estimated that 7 million children have some degree of hearing loss.
What are the major types of hearing loss?
There are two major types of hearing loss:
Conductive is related to how the ear gathers sound.
Sensorineural is related to how the nervous system transmits that sound to the brain.
Conductive
The outer ear gathers sound waves from the environment and funnels them into the ear canal. At the end of the canal, the waves hit the eardrum, causing it to vibrate. Three tiny bones in the middle ear conduct the vibrations from the eardrum to the cochlea (a spiral-shaped chamber that looks a bit like a snail) in the inner ear. If anything interferes with the transfer of sound waves up to this point, the resulting type of hearing loss is called conductive.Conductive hearing loss may be temporary or permanent. It can be caused by something as simple as a buildup of earwax or an ear infection.
Sensorineural
Problems ahead of this point lead to sensorineural hearing loss, also known as nerve deafness. Normally, the vibrations from the middle ear create waves in the fluid inside the cochlea. The waves in turn stimulate thousands of delicate hair cells that line the