Conductive Hearing Loss: A Comprehensive Guide
Summary: Hearing loss is a problem that is arising day by day, and it impacts a wide range of the population, from elderly people to young ones. It can occur at any age, from reaching your middle ear to the outer ear. Hearing loss is not just a normal problem, but it can impact your schedule, cycle and social interactions.
Introduction:When we talk about conductive hearing loss, this is probably caused by a middle-ear-to-outer-ear blockage. If we speak simply and directly, conductive hearing loss is something in which sound cannot reach the inner ear. It can be due to ear infections, blockages, and some other types of abnormalities in your structure. This sounds most common in young children; in most cases, conductive hearing loss can be reduced with treatment. Left untreated, symptoms may worsen, causing permanent hearing impairment.
Key takeaways:
- Conductive hearing loss is a condition in which sound cannot reach the inner ear.
- There are many root causes of conductive hearing loss, such as physical blockage and mechanical failure in the outer or middle ear.
- Sensorineural hearing loss is a more complicated problem, involving the “electronic” components of the ear.
- Signs of conductive hearing loss should be detected early with the help of professional audiologists.
- Choose the right hearing aid with the expert’s guidance and support.
Table of Contents
Difference Between Conductive Hearing Loss and Sensorineural Hearing Loss
Here is a difference guide to conductive vs sensorineural hearing loss:
Conductive Hearing Loss
- Root Cause: A physical block or mechanical failure in the outside or middle ear hinders sound from transmitting to the inside ear.
- Sensation: Sounds are perceived to be “distant” or “muffled”. This can often be compared to the feeling of having your ear(s) “plugged” with cotton.
- Clarity: Speech remains understandable as long as there is sufficient volume to overcome the blockage.Common Causes: Earwax impaction, fluid from an ear infection, a perforated eardrum, or a foreign body lodged in the external ear canal.
- Medical Diagnosis: Typically resolves itself on its own or can be treated. A physician usually treats a conductive hearing impairment with medications, cleaning and/or minor surgery.
Sensorineural hearing loss:
- Root Cause: Cochlear (inner ear) or auditory pathway neural activity has been compromised. The sound goes to the ear. The translator has failed.
- Sensation: Sounds aren’t just low volume; they’re distorted. The sensation is usually described as, “I can hear, but I don’t understand.
- Clarity: Increasing the volume seldom restores clarity. Most high-pitched sounds, e.g., “s”, “f” and “th”, become non-existent first.
- Common Causes of Sensorineural: Increased age, long-term exposure to loud sound, viral infection and specific medications.
- Medical Prognosis: Sensorineural tends to be a permanent condition. The tiny hair cells do not regenerate. The focus of treatment is usually maintaining improvement with electrical devices, hearing aids and implantable cochlear prostheses.
Comparison: conductive vs sensorineural hearing loss
- Volume vs Clarity: Conductive is primarily a volume concern, while sensorineural is primarily a clarity concern.
- Condition: Conductive is in the plumbing (outer/middle), while sensorineural occurs in the wiring (inner/nerve).
- Cure vs Aid: Conductive can frequently be cured, while sensorineural must be aided.
Causes of Conductive Hearing Loss
hearing loss results from blockages or other structural problems in your outer or middle ear, preventing sound waves from reaching the inner ear. Common conductive hearing loss causes are fixed cerumen (earwax), fluid in the middle ear, infections and allergies, ear infections (otitis media) and eardrum perforation.
The key factors are most probably categorised by the affected area:
- Outer Ear blockage and abstraction
- Excess Earwax (Cerumen): the main cause of hearing loss.
- Foreign Objects: something stuck in the ear canal.
- Ear Canal Infections (Otitis Externa): Inflammation or swelling.
- Structural Defects: Narrowed canal or malformed outer ear (atresia).
- Middle Ear (Infection/Structural Damage)
- Middle Ear Fluid/Infection (Otitis Media/Glue Ear): Fluid buildup from colds or infections, common in children.
- Perforated Eardrum: A hole caused by infections, injury, or loud noises.
- Otosclerosis: Abnormal, stiffening bone growth that prevents the tiny ear bones from vibrating properly.
- Cholesteatoma: Abnormal skin growth or cyst in the middle ear.
- Ossicular Chain Discontinuity: Damage or disconnection of the middle ear bones (ossicles) due to injury.
- Eustachian Tube Dysfunction: Inability to balance pressure, leading to fluid accumulation.
These conditions are often temporary, though some, like chronic infection or otosclerosis, may require medical or surgical intervention.
Signs and Symptoms of Conductive Hearing Loss
becomes important to know the conductive hearing loss causes and signs for diagnosing it at an early stage and taking up the professional hearing test. When your auditory nerve and sensitive inner ear are intact, when you are struggling with conductive hearing loss, you probably face problems with your overall sound loudness without clarity. People with this type of hearing loss mostly try to increase the volume on their TV and radio, and then they are able to hear in a better way.
Some common symptoms of hearing loss are:
- pain in one or both of your eyes.
- Better to hear from one year than another
- They themselves found their voice louder and changed
- pressure sensation in one or both of the ears
- a foul odour coming from your ear canal
- frustration and difficulty with the phone conversations
Diagnoses of Conductive Hearing Loss
The diagnosis process of conductive hearing loss starts with a visual exam by using an otoscope to check for physical blockages like earwax, fluid, or a ruptured eardrum. To understand the issues from nerve damage, audiologists also made fork tests. In the conductive loss, sound vibrations can be heard better through the bone than through the ear.
The most accurate and correct results are considered by pure tone audiometry if the gap appears when the bone conduction hearing is normal, but the air conduction is not. At the end, tympanometry measures eardrum flexibility; a lack of movement often confirms fluid or middle ear pressure issues.
Hearing Aids for Conductive Hearing Loss
There are various choices in hearing aids for conductive hearing loss, and you can go ahead with any of them as per your audiologist’s guidance and your comfort:
Bone Conduction Aids (The “Vibrating” Kind): The use of vibrations instead of receiving sound through your ear is one of the few ways to improve hearing. Rather than putting loud noises in your ear, the way in which vibrations transmit sound is by passing through your skull bone directly to the inner parts of your ear, so you’re able to “hear” through your bones.
- Headband: A stretchy band that goes around your head and holds the vibrator against your head.
- Implant (or BAHA): They are placed by a physician just behind your ear, which allows the vibrator to attach to it directly, providing you with an even clearer sound that way.
An implantable device for the middle ear: A physician implants a small device that will attach to the tiny ossicles in your ear. This device acts as a bridge between the ossicles and travels through the bone to ensure that they can vibrate and transmit sound.
Hearing aids: Most people you see have these hearing aids for conductive hearing loss. in their ears, which will amplify sounds by making them much louder than they would have been without an amplifier. They provide an amplifying effect; however, they can also worsen an existing ear infection due to the excess waste product being created in your ear canal, thus blocking sound from entering your ear.
Why these are good:
- They keep your ear canal open and breathable
- Like other aids, they do not sound muffled
- They use your healthy inner ear to its full potential.
Conclusion
In this community, many people dealing with hearing impairments find that hearing loss has a negative impact on their daily activities, social connections and family time together with their friends/family. As previously mentioned, conductive hearing loss occurs when sound cannot travel through to the inner ear. Audiologists can help you overcome these issues by providing you with the most appropriate hearing device based on your type of hearing loss.
FAQ
What is conductive hearing loss?
Conductive hearing loss is a type of hearing loss that occurs when sound has trouble getting through the outer and/or middle parts of your ear to the inner ear.
What is the difference between conductive hearing loss and sensorineural hearing loss?
A major difference between conductive hearing loss and sensorineural hearing loss is that conductive hearing loss will affect the volume of sound that is produced, while sensorineural hearing loss will affect the clarity of the sound you are hearing.
What causes conductive hearing loss?
Conductive hearing loss can be caused by things like excess earwax, fluid in your ears, ear infections, a damaged or perforated eardrum or problems with one of the bones in the middle ear.
Is conductive hearing loss considered a permanent condition?
In most cases, conductive hearing loss is not considered a permanent condition because there are many treatment options available that can correct the problem.
Is conductive hearing loss common in children?
Yes, it is relatively common in children, primarily due to ear infections and fluid buildup.
