Introduction

Hearing loss, for many, is a very difficult impairment to accept and deal with. Often, individuals do not want to take the step of purchasing hearing aids to alleviate their hearing issues. In addition to the physiological deterioration of the auditory system, many people experience various psychosocial difficulties in their lives. Whether one has difficulty hearing their granddaughter's voice or has difficulty in an important business meeting, hearing loss can affect multiple aspects of one's life.

Hearing loss affects millions of individuals in the United States alone, and according to the Better Hearing Institute, hearing loss is now the 3rd leading health issue among Americans. Surveys show that approximately 10% of the U.S. population has hearing loss. In addition, 3 in 10 people over the age of 60 and 1 in 6 baby boomers now report a hearing problem. Yet, very few individuals are proactive in finding a solution towards alleviating their hearing problems.

One reason may be due to the lack of awareness towards the degenerative properties of an auditory system that is damaged. For most individuals that have hearing loss and need a hearing device, the general rule of thumb is: "the less you wait, the greater the chance of success."  An analogy that is often used is of muscles in relation to the sensory cells for hearing. The saying, "If you don't use it, you lose it!" holds true with hearing as well. If the muscle is not stimulated/exercised, muscular atrophy (decreased muscle strength) can render the arm weak and useless. Just as the muscle can become "weak", if one has hearing loss and their sensory cells for hearing are not stimulated appropriately by some form of amplification, our ears can become less sensitive and less accurate in terms of hearing these sounds, rendering our ears "weak".

For more information on the Causes & Types of Hearing loss, click here.

Ear Anatomy

• The ear can be categorized into three parts: the outer ear, middle ear, and inner ear.  A problem that decreases the function of any one of these parts can create hearing loss.

• The outer ear is composed of the pinna (the part we can see) and the ear canal (where ear wax can build up).  The pinna captures certain sounds coming towards you and funnels them into the ear canal.

• The middle ear is composed of the ear drum, the ossicles or the three tiny bones (malleus, incus, and stapes), and the entrance of the eustachian tube (connects our ear to the back of the throat).

• The inner ear is where the magic happens; it's where everything comes together. The inner ear consists of the cochlea, the auditory nerve, and the balance nerve.  The cochlea houses the sensory hair cells that are responsible for translating sound into electrical impulses to the nerve that the brain understands.

• So how do all the parts of the ear work together to create what we know as "sound"? An acoustic sound wave enters the earcanal and vibrates the eardrum. These vibrations are then passed along through the bones in your middle ear and eventually lead to the fluid-filled cochlea. The cochlea then acts like a hydraulic system where the vibrations turn into hydraulic "waves" that stimulate certain inner ear hair cells. These hair cells then transform the "waves" into electrical impulses that the nerves send to the auditory portion of our brain. The brain then translates this impulses as "sounds"! Whew!!! So, as you can see, this is a very complex system that we may often take for granted.

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