Can hearing loss be reversed?

I know how painful it is when someone loses their hearing but don’t worry sometimes hearing loss can be reversed. However, keep one thing in mind that it depends on different variables. As per Johns Hopkins Medicine, one can suffer from any one or two of the three types of hearing loss viz. sensorineural, conductive and mixed hearing loss. Let’s have a deep look at these types of hearing loss.

Sensorineural Hearing Loss: Not Reversible

When your inner ear or the hearing nerve gets damaged, you might suffer from Sensorineural hearing loss. It is a quite common type of hearing loss as its symptoms are visible in most of the people. Cause of this type of hearing loss can be anything like age, genetics, harsh noise, disease, ototoxic drugs, or any ear injury. According to Johns Hopkins Medicine USA, sensorineural hearing loss is irreversible but can be relieved with the use of hearing aids.

You would be glad to know that sudden cases of sensorineural hearing loss can be reversed if treated right away. Rush to your Doctor in such situations!

Researchers are also putting their efforts on gene therapy for sensorineural hearing loss these days as they hope that this treatment will invigorate the regrowth of tiny hairs that allow the ear to hear.

Conductive Hearing Loss: Reversible in some cases

This type of hearing loss occurs only when the sound doesn’t reach the inner ear. The affected zone of this kind of hearing loss is outer or middle ear. Things that prevent noise from reaching to the inner ear are the buildup of earwax or a foreign object in the ear canal. As studied by Hopkins, other causes could be damage to the eardrum or impaction by fluid, infection or bone spur (abnormality) in the middle ear.

Studies revealed that conductive hearing loss could be reversed in some cases through a medical procedure or surgery.

Mixed Hearing Loss: Reversible depending upon the variables

Last but not the least, as the name suggests, people suffering from a combination of sensorineural and conductive hearing loss might have to face mixed hearing loss too.

So, its reversibility also depends on the same treatment as in sensorineural and conductive hearing loss individually.

Consult your Doctor to improve your hearing

In the end, you don’t need to come to the conclusion. Rush to your Doctor and talk to him. You never know what exactly is going on in your ear and he may be able to reverse your hearing loss or keep it from getting worse.