Every day scientists are discovering new cures. That might be a positive or a negative. For instance, you may look at encouraging new research in the arena of curing hearing loss and you figure you don’t really have to be all that cautious. You’ll feel like they will most likely have a cure for deafness by the time you will notice any symptoms of hearing loss.
That’s not a smart idea. Clearly, protecting your hearing now while it’s still healthy would be the wiser choice. Scientists are making some phenomenal advances on the subject of treating hearing loss though, including some potential cures in the future.
Hearing loss is awful
Hearing loss is just a fact of life. It’s not necessarily because of something you did wrong. It’s just part of the aging process. But developing hearing loss has some extreme disadvantages. Your social life, general wellness, and mental health can be substantially impacted by hearing loss, along with your inability to hear what’s happening around you. Untreated hearing loss can even lead to an increased risk of depression and dementia. Lots of research exists that shows a connection between social isolation and neglected hearing loss.
Hearing loss is, generally speaking, a degenerative and chronic situation. This means that there isn’t any cure and, over time, it’ll get worse. This doesn’t apply to every type of hearing loss but we’ll get to that soon. Even though there’s no cure, though, that doesn’t mean it can’t be managed.
If you come see us, we can help slow down the development of your hearing loss and maintain your current levels of hearing. Often, this means using a hearing aid, which is usually the optimal treatment for most forms of hearing loss. So, for most individuals, there’s no cure, but there are treatments. And those treatments can do a lot of good when it comes to enhancing your quality of life.
Two types of hearing loss
Not all hearing loss is the same. Hearing loss comes in two main categories. One can be cured, the other can be managed. Here’s how it breaks down:
- Conductive hearing loss: When the ear canal gets obstructed by something, you get this form of hearing loss. Possibly it’s a clump of earwax (a bit gross, but it happens). Perhaps it’s swelling caused by an ear infection. Whatever the cause, there’s something physically preventing sound waves from traveling up to your inner ear. This form of hearing loss can certainly be cured, usually by eliminating the blockage (or treating whatever is creating the obstruction in the first place).
- Sensorineural hearing loss: This type of hearing loss is more permanent. There are tiny hairs in your ear (known as stereocilia) that pick up minute vibrations in the air. Your brain is able to interpret these vibrations as sound. As you go through life, these hairs get damaged, by loud sound usually. And once they are damaged, the hairs don’t function. This reduces your ability to hear. There’s currently no way to restore these hairs, and your body doesn’t make new ones naturally. When you lose them, it’s forever.
Sensorineural hearing loss treatments
Just because sensorineural hearing loss is permanent doesn’t mean it can’t be managed. The goal of any such treatment is to let you hear as much as you can given your hearing loss. Keeping you functioning as independently as possible, improving your situational awareness, and allowing you to hear conversations is the objective.
So, what are these treatment methods? Here are some common treatments.
Hearing aids
Most likely, the one most common way of managing hearing loss is hearing aids. Hearing aids can be individually tuned to your specific hearing needs, so they’re especially beneficial. Wearing a hearing aid will allow you to better understand conversations and interact with others during your daily life. Many of the symptoms of social isolation can be staved off by using hearing aids (and, as a result, decrease your risk of dementia and depression).
Getting your own pair of hearing aids is incredibly common, and there are many styles to pick from. In order to figure out which model is suited to your taste and degree of hearing loss, you’ll need to come see us for a consultation.
Cochlear implants
Often, it will be necessary to bypass the ears altogether if hearing loss is complete. A cochlear implant does just that. This device is surgically inserted into the ear. This device directly transfers sound, which it has converted into electrical energy, to your cochlear nerve. Your brain then interprets those signals as sound.
Cochlear implants are typically used when hearing loss is complete, a condition called deafness. So even if your hearing has gone away completely, there are still treatment options available.
Novel advances
Scientists are always working on new ways to treat hearing loss.
These new advances are frequently geared towards “curing” hearing loss in ways that have previously been impossible. Some of these advances include:
- Stem cell therapies: These treatments utilize stem cells from your own body. The idea is that these stem cells can then develop into new stereocilia (those tiny hairs inside of your ears). It’s not likely that we will have prescription gene therapy for some time, but for now, studies with animals are promising.
- Progenitor cell activation: So, stem cells in your ear originate the creation of stereocilia. Once the stereocilia develop, the stem cells become inactive, and they are then called progenitor cells. These new therapies are stimulating the stereocilia to regrow by reactivating the progenitor cells. Encouraging results for these new therapies have come from early human trials. There was a substantial improvement, for most patients, in their ability to hear and comprehend speech. It isn’t really known how long it will be before these treatments will be widely available.
- GFI1 Protein: There’s a protein which has been identified by scientists that is essential for the regrowth of stereocilia. Scientists are hoping that they can get a better concept of how to get these stereocilia to grow back by recognizing this protein. Once again, this is one of those treatments that’s more in the “drawing board” phase than the “widely available” phase.
Stay in the moment – treat your hearing loss now
There’s a lot of promise in these innovations. But let’s remember that none of them are available to the public at this time. Which means that it’s a good idea to live in the here and now. Be proactive about protecting your hearing.
A miracle cure isn’t likely to be coming soon, so if you’re struggling with hearing loss, give us a call to schedule your hearing exam.
References
https://hsci.harvard.edu/major-step-toward-treatment-leading-form-hearing-loss
https://news.mit.edu/2022/frequency-therapeutics-hearing-regeneration-0329
