Hearing loss can present itself in a variety of different ways. However, the most common form is presbycusis, or age-related hearing loss.
We have helped thousands of patients in Abilene and surrounding communities to overcome their hearing challenges over the years, but helping them understand where their hearing loss comes from is sometimes difficult.
As more and more people use the internet to self-diagnose and self-treat, it is becoming more critical than ever to help people understand the need to get some hard facts about hearing loss issues.
To begin with, presbycusis is the number one form of hearing loss, especially in individuals over the age of 69. It is a permanent condition without a cure, which means early detection is crucial when it comes to successful treatment outcomes.
Join me in taking a closer look at presbycusis and learn why early diagnosis and treatment can help keep you hearing better for longer.
What Is Presbycusis?
The best place to start understanding presbycusis is by defining it. It is a form of hearing loss that is due to the deterioration of inner ear nerve cells, and it presents in four different forms. However, the two most common forms include:
Sensory presbycusis, which is related to the deterioration of outer hair cells in the organ known as the organ of Corti at the base of your cochlea.
Neural presbycusis involves the loss of the inner ear nerve cells inside the cochlea, affecting sound transmission along the auditory pathway to the central auditory processing center of your brain.
Presbycusis develops gradually as you age, but there are early warning signs that should alert you to seek help.
Early Warning Signs of Age-Related Hearing Loss:
- The inability to hear high-pitched sounds like birds singing, women and children talking, or alarms
- The need to increase the volume on your cell phone, television, computer, or tablet because you can’t make out conversations
- Difficulty understanding conversations in a crowded room or a noisy place like a restaurant or family gathering
- Fatigue from straining to hear conversations at an event or throughout your day
- Issues with dizziness, vertigo, or balance
- Lingering dull pain or fullness in your ears
- The development of incessant ringing in your ears, or tinnitus
Risk Factors Associated with Presbycusis
Aging is the primary risk factor in the development of presbycusis. Consequently, it is more a matter of “when” you will develop it rather than “if.”
Genetics is the number one uncontrolled risk factor for determining how rapidly and severely your condition advances, but overall health and lifestyle also play a role. So, there are some factors that are controllable.
Ototoxicity
Ototoxicity is usually applied to various types of medications that damage hearing nerve cells. However, ototoxic exposure can be found in a number of different places and can be connected to lifestyle factors as well, including chemicals in the air and various solvents as well as the consumption of cigarettes, alcohol, and recreational drugs.
Noise Exposure
Exposure to loud noise, either from a single extreme noise event, like an explosion, or ongoing damaging noise levels over an extended period of time, can also quicken the rate of deterioration of your ears’ nerve cells. Ongoing noise exposure, which leads to noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) can affect individuals much younger than 70 years of age.
Here’s the bad news.
Even if you change your lifestyle, permanent damage from either of these two contributing factors has already been done. However, the rate of damage can be decreased by changing medications to non-ototoxic formulas, limiting exposure to ototoxic chemicals, and using hearing protection in high-noise environments.
Why Is It Important to Seek Early Treatment for Presbycusis?
When left untreated, all forms of hearing loss come with added complications that reach beyond your ability to hear and communicate.
Because verbal communication is so important to maintaining relationships with the people around us, untreated hearing loss often begins to threaten personal, professional, and social relationships.
Additionally, the frustration of poor communication from hearing loss often causes people to withdraw from those around them. Social isolation typically produces anxiety disorder and depression, which can also contribute to various physical health issues.
When hearing loss is not treated, it can also directly affect cognitive function, leading to dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, and disrupt vestibular dysfunctions, leading to dizziness, vertigo, and balance disorders.
Consequently, treating presbycusis plays a major role in your overall health, just as much as controlling blood pressure, cholesterol, diet, and other contributors to poor health.
Treatment Options and Prevention
There is no cure for hearing loss, but in the vast majority of cases, you can continue to enjoy an active and rewarding lifestyle with the help of hearing aids.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution. So, it is important to find a hearing care provider that can test your hearing for an accurate understanding of your hearing loss and customize hearing aids to meet your hearing needs, as well as your lifestyle, budget, and personal preferences.
Since the only way to stop presbycusis is to stop growing old, you should be considering treatment as early as possible, especially if you are 50 years old or beyond. Early treatment can slow deterioration and help you avoid any interruptions to your quality of life.
Along with controlling ototoxic and noise exposure, many experts believe that taking care of your overall health also helps decrease the rate of nerve cell deterioration.
When Should I See an Audiologist?
Since early detection can decrease the impact of presbycusis on your lifestyle and quality of life, a comprehensive hearing assessment is the most important proactive step you can take. If you are over fifty, they should become a regular part of your healthcare monitoring regimen.
Why?
Even if your hearing tests are normal, the baseline measurements taken during a comprehensive hearing exam can help you and your audiologist recognize changes to your hearing as they develop rather than trying to catch up with them after the damage has been done.
Whether you recognize the early warning signs of hearing loss or not, a hearing assessment provides you with real numbers to know exactly where you are in the development of hearing loss.
Hold presbycusis at bay and begin your journey to hearing your best for as long as you can by scheduling a comprehensive hearing assessment at Holland Hearing Center online using this link or by calling us at (325) 437-4730.