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Why hearing loss occurs

By : Terry Meas    Five stars rating
Submitted 2010-07-31 19:30:44
Of all the senses in our body, hearing is most important when we want to learn about different languages, cultures and other things. Though it will be hard to imagine, people who have the normal sense of hearing will have a totally different world once they loss it. People should therefore be aware of the causes of hearing loss as well as how hearing works.

There are five section of the human body that are involved in the function of hearing. The five sections that make up the hearing mechanism are the inner ear, the middle ear, outer ear, acoustic nerve and the brain?s auditory processing centers. Permanent hearing loss can be the result once any of these five sections encounters a problem, as it is very important that all five functions together perfectly.

Sound vibrations are collected by the outer ear and it funnels them to the ear canal, making this the first step in the hearing mechanism. The outer ear is also important in giving the brain information about where the sound is coming from and how far it is. The ear canal is an each long passageway that is usually covered with hair and glands that secretes earwax to prevent tiny objects from entering our ears, and this ear canal follows the outer ear.

Our eardrum is the next part which is then followed by the middle ear where three significant bones are found. The important bones are called hammer, anvil and stirrup, they are responsible in creating movements that will match the sound waves from the outer ear. Next, the movement from the middle ear is pushed on a membrane in the cochlea located in the inner ear.

The part of the inner ear that looks like a snail is the cochlea, and it is mostly consist of fluid and tiny hair cells. The fluid is disrupted and in turn stimulates the tiny hair cells when the mechanical energy pushes thru the membrane. Different sounds and frequencies can only stimulate specific hair cells, there is not one sound that can stimulate all of these hair cells.

Nerve impulses, which are the converted signals from the stimulated tiny hair cells, are carried by the acoustic nerve to the brain. As the acoustic nerve carries these nerve impulses to the brain, the central auditory system is already processing it. Then it is differentiated from other sounds and sources and a time stamp is made on the sound.

These things, although microscopic in size, gives a person his or her ability to hear and more importantly understand sound. We should then prevent damaging any section of our hearing mechanism to avoid temporary and permanent loss of hearing. Causes of hearing loss are to be presented in the next section to give better knowledge of how this can be avoided.

Birth defects or abnormalities in the ears or hearing parts of the body is one cause of hearing loss. A person commonly loses their hearing after being surrounded by noise and louse sounds regularly. A person's hearing can also be affected by extreme noises like that of being near the epicenter of an explosion.

Some viruses or bacteria can wreck havoc on the body's hearing processes. Some medication and chemicals like solvents, pesticides have been studied and have shown possibilities of triggering hearing loss. On a lasting note, if you haven't had your ears checked then it is time to get it diagnosed for possible risks.
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