An example of preventable hearing loss is exposure to damaging sound levels. Prevention is accomplished through the use of adequate hearing protection and avoidance of situations that would potentially cause hearing loss. Many years ago, when textile mills, steel factories and other high noise industrial environments were the mainstay of the American economy, noise-induced hearing loss was common. Workers were not protected from high noise levels by company management unless the company established a specific hearing conservation program. It was not until 1969, when the Federal government established the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA), that specific criteria for noise exposure were defined by law. OSHA regulations specified sound levels and time periods of exposure that, when exceeded, hearing conservation measures would have to be instituted by companies. Through the efforts of OSHA as well as loss and casualty insurance companies, issues of occupational noise induced hearing loss have been dealt with on a more widespread basis.

Now that industrial noise environments have decreased substantially due to the movement of these industries out of the country, the most common sources of damaging noise levels are societal and recreational rather than industrial. The increased noise of urban environments from heavy vehicular traffic, extremely loud music from high levels of amplification, recreational shooting of firearms, noisy power equipment such as chain saws, leaf blowers, and other tools all contribute to preventable hearing loss.

Hearing loss that is not preventable results from changes in our health conditions from cardiovascular changes due to aging, inherited conditions such as familial history of hearing loss, administration of powerful ototoxic drugs, and other traumatic events such as accidents that injure the ear.

Some types of hearing loss can be treated medically or surgically. Such treatments may include simply removing impacted cerumen from the ear canal, treating ear infections with medications or surgical intervention to treat otosclerosis, a condition resulting from excessive bony growth in the middle ear.

The most common type of hearing loss is called a sensory hearing loss (incorrectly called “nerve deafness” or “nerve loss”). This type of hearing loss results from permanent damage to the inner ear causing the loss of many of the thousands of tiny sensory cells (called hair cells) that convert sound waves into the information sent along the hearing nerve to the brain. The nerve fibers are usually intact, but there is nothing to activate them. 85% of people with hearing loss have sensory hearing loss, and while there is no medical or surgical treatment, these people can benefit from hearing aids. When the degree of hearing loss reaches the profound level, where an individual might be classified as truly deaf, a cochlear implant, a device that stimulates the hearing nerve with tiny electrical currents, is often an option. Ear surgeons of course, install a cochlear implant and through audiological rehabilitation implant users can often reach fairly high levels of success with their implant.

Modern advanced technology digital hearing aids are designed specifically to address the hearing needs of the individual with sensory hearing loss. These aids break up the sound range into multiple frequency bands to provide precise matching of the hearing aid’s behavior to the pattern of hearing loss. In addition the precise amounts of amplification needed to correct for hearing loss is controlled by the digital circuits in the hearing aid to enable the hard of hearing person to hear soft sounds that are otherwise inaudible and then adjust the amplification automatically so that loud sounds are not over amplified and thus uncomfortably loud and distorted.

Advanced technology digital hearing aids may also incorporate directional microphones and special “software” that reduces the interference from background noise, enabling speech to be understood in noisy environments that were previously impossible for hearing aid wearers. New technologies are now available to help people with high frequency hearing loss, a type of loss that previously could not be helped successfully without unpleasant side effects such as feelings of blocked ears and the user’s own voice echoing (“occlusion effects”).