Hearing problems get worse with age - hearing ages with us. This is inevitable, and unfortunately, hearing loss is becoming a problem for younger and younger people. We should not be ashamed of it and use the help of medicine and technology without fear.

Not only older people rarely admit that their hearing is worse - perhaps the reason is the negative reception of the medical term " senile hearing loss " or " sufficient deafness". According to Juliusz Piotrowski, an ENT specialist from the Medical University of Warsaw, they pretend that nothing has changed: - And the world ceases to be understandable to them. First of all: they do not reach all the sounds and noises they have heard so far. Second: they have trouble telling them apart. The sounds start to "blend". And only the family notices that grandmother or uncle start to speak louder, less clearly. And they are distracted, irritated. Additionally, they turn on the radio or TV set louder and louder.

What our ears hear?

We hear sounds of a very wide range of intensity - from whispers, murmurs, rustles, to the roar of a shot or the thunder of a jet engine. The human ear is able to perceive sounds (acoustic waves) with a frequency of 16 to 22 thousand. Hz (vibrations per second), with an intensity of up to 120 dB (decibels). This is why we hear someone whispering to us from two meters away, and for some, the sound of a hydraulic press half a meter away causes excruciating pain. For the most sensitive, the limit of hearing loss goes a bit further. For them, the last sound they can hear is the near sound of a jet engine (140 dB).

How does the ear work?

The ear is an elaborate receiver of acoustic waves. Sound is first picked up by the outer ear and guided through the ear canal to the diaphragm. It vibrates as it reaches her. The waves are then transferred to the three bones in the middle ear (hammer, anvil and stapes) where the vibrations are amplified and transmitted to the inner ear. There, the sound in the form of electrical impulses is sent to nerve endings called hair cells and then through the auditory nerve to the brain. - So we don't hear with our ears, but with our brains. The ears are just complicated compressors and microphones - says Dr. Piotrowski.

Worth knowing

The World He alth Organization estimates thatAbout 10-15 percent of the world's people have hearing problems, or at least 600 million! We hear best until we are twenty. The first problems are men. Hearing systematically deteriorates from the age of 30-40. Its loss increases by one decibel per year for physiological reasons. For women, problems begin later around the age of 50. Perhaps it is because deafness is associated with old age that people are reluctant to admit to having problems with declining hearing. And yet it is enough to go to a specialist (ENT specialist), undergo appropriate tests to return to the world full of sounds. - I wear glasses myself. I show them to my patients when we talk about the necessity or need of wearing a hearing aid. Nobody is ashamed of glasses, many people's cameras. For them, it is like a symbol of disability. Poor eyesight is OK, poor hearing is not anymore - Dr. Piotrowski patiently persuades people to wear hearing aids and not be ashamed.

Hearing deteriorates with age

First, we don't notice the rustling, the ticking of a clock, the sound of a timer in the kitchen, then high tones. And that's why the person whose hearing becomes weaker will first be unable to hear children and people speaking in high, thin voices. Then the birds stop singing and individual sounds merge. "S", "T" "D" are indistinguishable. Hearing impaired people lose sounds, and additionally have problems with picking out one of the many that are around. People with hearing loss must have silence around them, because they cannot find sounds in the noise of other sounds - explains Dr. Piotrowski.

The hearing aid is a rarity

First, however, you need to undergo an audiological test, i.e. the sensitivity of your hearing. It is based on the registration of electrical potentials in the brain stem and cortex. The patient is put on headphones or small soft inserts for each ear canal. Each ear is tested separately. Tones in octave bands from 250 to 8000 Hz are checked. In addition, the following are checked: the sensitivity of the middle ear, speech audiometry and volume scaling. An audiogram is obtained at the end of the test. On this basis, the doctor knows how severe the hearing loss is, what it is about (there can be many causes) and in which part of the ear the defect occurs. Maybe then, if necessary, propose a hearing aid. Their cost varies (PLN 1,000-6,000). A considerable problem for patients is that the National He alth Fund partially refunds only one hearing aid for one ear, regardless of whether the insured person should have two - for both ears. This year, the Fund is allocating fora hearing aid less than a thousand zlotys for an adult. Unfortunately, you can change your camera every five years as part of the refund.

What can speed up hearing deterioration

  • bacterial and viral diseases of the upper respiratory tract with a particular location in the middle ear (repeated otitis media, chronic exudative otitis),
  • childhood infectious diseases (mumps, measles),
  • mechanical injuries of the ear,
  • acoustic injuries of the ear (e.g. loud explosion),
  • head injuries with fracture of the skull base,
  • toxic agents (e.g. taking antibiotics that damage hearing: streptomycin, gentamicin).

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ENT