World hearing day; Aging, chronic exposure to loud noises contribute to hearing loss, doctors

Jahangeer Ganaie

Srinagar, Mar 03: Around 0.2 percent population in J&K have hearing disabilities with aging and chronic exposure to loud noises contributing to hearing loss.

Dr Saima Tabassum consultant ENT J&K health services told the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) that there are three main types of hearing loss including conductive, sensorineural, and mixed (both conductive and sensorineural).

The World Hearing Day is being observed for awareness about preventable hearing loss & deafness, ear health and care.

Dr Saima said that good hearing is crucial for communication, learning, and overall well-being because there is a highly-involved collaboration between ears and brains. “Our sense of hearing transmits and translates sounds of all kinds from our surroundings. So we can learn and understand,” she added.

According to the doctor, every 3rd or 4th person in each family has some sort of hearing impairment that’s why one shouldn’t ignore ear health.

Another ENT specialist from GMC told KNO that the signs and symptoms of hearing loss may include muffling of speech and other sounds, difficulty understanding words especially against background noise or in a crowd, trouble hearing consonants, frequently asking others to speak more slowly, clearly and loudly.

He said causes of hearing loss include damage to the inner ear as aging and exposure to loud noise may cause wear and tear on hairs or nerve cells in the cochlea that send sound signals to the brain.

“When these hairs or nerve cells are damaged or missing, electrical signals aren’t transmitted as efficiently, and hearing loss occurs,” he said.

Ear war can block ear canal and prevent conduction of sound waves and earwax removal can help restore your hearing.

He also said that In the outer or middle of ear, any of these issues can cause hearing loss and loud blasts of noise, sudden changes in pressure, poking your eardrum with an object and infection can cause your eardrum to rupture and affect your hearing—(KNO)