Saturday, May 22, 2010

A Sound Way To Treat Hearing Loss In Children

There's good news for parents who have a child born with significant hearing loss. Advances in technology are making it possible to address profound hearing loss in children as young as 12 months of age.

Approximately one of every 1,000 newborns in the United States-about 33 babies per day-is born profoundly deaf.

Fortunately, there are treatment alternatives. For example, cochlear implants are small, complex, implantable electronic devices that restore hearing by bypassing the damaged parts of the ear to directly stimulate the auditory nerve, and may be beneficial to those who cannot hear or understand speech well with a hearing aid.

One of the latest developments in cochlear implant technology is the HiResolution® Bionic Ear System. Developed by Advanced Bionics Corporation, the Neuromodulation Group of Boston Scientific Corporation, it is described as the only cochlear implant system that can provide HiResolution sound, which is designed to enhance the fine details of sound to stimulate a more natural hearing nerve response for both children with profound hearing loss and adults with severe or profound hearing loss.

Potential advantages of the cochlear implant include better distance hearing, comfortable loudness growth, and clearer, more understandable speech.

Experts say people with cochlear implants can hold normal conversations, hear in noisy environments such as restaurants, use the telephone, work, participate in sports, attend school, and even play musical instruments.

Early screening and implementation of a hearing device, such as a cochlear implant, have medical, financial and social benefits. "Cochlear implants, coupled with auditory therapy, can help young children more quickly acquire the speech, language and social skills needed to successfully mainstream into regular classrooms with their normal-hearing peers," said Patricia Trautwein, Au.D., director of auditory education and training for Advanced Bionics.

Nearly half of all cochlear implant recipients are children. Children benefit most from a cochlear implant when their hearing loss is detected in its beginning stages and they receive early intervention and treatment.

Adult candidates for a cochlear implant are most often those who are post-lingually deaf in both ears. These individuals typically receive limited benefit from hearing aids.

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Better Hearing with Listening Devices

Of all of the ways that people can use listening devices, whether it is for fun, helping to detect problems with plumbing, pest control, covert operations, or keeping tabs on baby, one of the most important reasons for the use of listening devices is to just be able to hear with. That is hearing what the person standing across the room is saying to you. Hearing the timer go off on your stove so that your dinner or that cake you made doesn’t burn. Hearing what is being said on the TV without having to turn the sound up so loud that the whole neighborhood knows what you are watching. More importantly, so that a would be intruder, listening to that blaring TV, doesn’t know that you are hard of hearing and might not hear them breaking into your home until it is too late.

Let’s face it, hearing aids, the type that are typically sold to people with hearing problems are expensive, very, very expensive. And if you don’t have health insurance that pays for the cost of these pricy devices, you may be living in a world of partial silence unnecessarily. There are listening devices on the market today like the dynamic new slim line SuperEar. What are so great about these devices are not only their high degree of sensitivity and their mere three-ounce weight, but the price is unbelievably listed at under a hundred dollars. That’s right! And these listening devices are so compact they can be easily stowed into a pocket or purse when you are not using them.

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Hearing Loss

Diagnosis of Deafness and Hearing Loss

Many people have reported that it is often difficult to gain a specific diagnosis and causes for their hearing loss and deafness.

As with many medical conditions there are normally a high number of causes and individual circumstances to consider, even when using the most sophisticated diagnosis technology it is very difficult to give an accurate diagnosis.

It is widely considered that there are 2 main causes for hearing loss & deafness in patients.

Sensorineural Hearing loss

Sensorineural hearing loss is the most prevalent cause of deafness in the UK.

This diagnosis relates to damage to the nerves with in the ear and is often referred to as ‘nerve deafness’.
Inside the cochlea in the inner ear are hair cells which pass information on sound impulses via nerves to the brain. Any damage that impairs this transfer of this information from the hair cells of the inner ear to the auditory nerve and finally the brain will cause Sensorineural Hearing.
Example causes for Sensorineural Hearing Loss include;
Aging Process - As we get older we can loose of hair cells in the cochlea and this is often responsible for hearing loss for those over 6.
Acoustic Trauma - very loud noises can damage hair cells.
Infections - These can cause loss of hair cells i.e. mumps or meningitis

Conductive Hearing Loss

Conductive Hearing loss is basically caused by obstruction in the outer ear which prevents or inhibits sound passing to the inner ear.

This can be caused by anything that interferes with the transmission of sound from the outer to the inner ear, such as;
Ear infections
Glue ear
Build up of wax,
Damage to the ossicles or perforated eardrum

Hearing aids are an obvious choice to help with hearing loss. There are many types and style available to suit most users needs, and can help improve the user’s lifestyle.

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