Hearing Loss Solutions with Advanced Audiology Technology

1. Hearing Loss Solutions with Advanced Audiology Technology Hearing is as important a daily activity as eating, seeing, touching and speaking. But even if you suffer from hearing loss, it may take 6 to 8 years for detecting the same. It may then be too late for you to take any immediate preventive measure. But the modern audiology provides you with a number of ways and means for timely testing, prevention and cure of your hearing loss. If you have problems in proper hearing, pain in the interior of your ear, tinnitus in your ear, dizziness or vertigo; it is high time you consult an experienced audiologist for getting your ear tested. This may involve visual examination of ear canal and ear drum and the following hearing tests depending upon the severity of the case.

2. A hearing test consists of two methods- the first one to know how you respond to tones of varying volume and pitch and the second, to test your understanding speech by the use of different words. Another test known as Immitence test automatically determines the mobility of your ear drum and the related functioning of the space surrounding the middle ear. In addition to these tests, you may be required to undergo other specialized tests depending upon the findings of the earlier findings and your age.

3. Your ear is constituted of three layers namely the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. The outer ear or pinna includes the ear canal and is located to the side of your head. It receives the sound waves and feeds into the ear canal. Ear drum is a tympanic membrane and is attached to the end of ear canal.  The sound waves vibrate the eardrum, beyond which exist three tiny bones called ossicles that transmit the sound to the inner ear. The movement of ossicles make the fluid within the inner ear or cochlea to move thus stimulating tiny nerves called hair cells to send electrical impulses to your brain. This creates the sense of your hearing.

4. Hearing loss is of different types. Sensor neural hearing loss arises when the tiny hair cells in the cochlea or hearing nerve to your brain are damaged. This may be caused due to age, consistent exposure to noise or genetic effects. It can be treated by amplification of hearing. When the outer or middle ear is not functioning properly, you are subjected to conductive hearing loss. It is caused due to infection, holes in the ear drum or impacted wax and can be treated by medication or surgery. Mixed hearing loss is a combination of both of the types and can be corrected by either amplification or by medication/surgery

5. There are audiologists who can undertake up hearing tests of infants and children of varying ages through a number of tests such as Otoacoustic Emissions (OAE), Visual Response Audiometer (VRA), Conditioned Play Audiometer CPA), Conditional Audiometric (CA),Auditory Processing Disorders (APD) or Tympanometry. Adult hearing can be evaluated by tests such as Diagnostic Hearing Evaluation (DHE), Balance Function Testing (VNG), Tinnitus Assessment and Retraining Therapy (TART) and Personal Amplification Devices and Accessories (PADA).