Nerve deafness, or sensorineural hearing loss, is caused by damage to the inner ear’s hair cells and can be congenital or acquired from external factors such as loud noise or medication. It can be diagnosed through hearing tests and treated with hearing aids or cochlear implants.
Nervous deafness, also known as sensorineural hearing loss, is an ear condition whose symptoms include impaired hearing or total deafness due to damage to the inner ear. It affects millions of people with varying degrees of severity. The condition can result from defects present at birth, referred to as birth defects, or symptoms acquired later in life. Most cases of nerve deafness are attributed to abnormalities of the hair cells located in the inner ear.
Irreversible damage to parts of the inner ear, especially the hair cells found in the cochlea, distinguish nerve deafness from other hearing loss conditions, although very rare cases of damage to the hearing centers of the brain and cranial nerve have been discovered. Damage to the brain’s auditory processors leads to a more severe sensorineural hearing loss called central hearing loss, characterized by an inability to interpret sounds so that speech is rendered unintelligible. Most cases of nerve deafness occur as a result of damage to the hair cells, preventing hearing information from being transmitted to the hearing nerve and causing some degree of deafness. The number of abnormal hair cells determines how severe the hearing loss will be.
Injury or destruction of the hair cells in the inner ear could result from congenital sources, dominant or recessive inherited genes associated with hearing loss, or from acquired external influences, such as an infection, disease, or trauma. Acquired nerve deafness has been linked to abnormalities and diseases of nearly every organ system, side effects of some medications, and physical injuries. Lifestyles that incorporate constant exposure to loud noise, such as daily use of headphones at full volume, can also lead to such trauma. Some acquired causes can trigger rapid hearing loss called sudden sensorineural hearing loss that usually resolves within a couple of weeks.
Nerve deafness that develops from inherited dominant or recessive genes can be syndromic, which refers to hearing loss that appears along with abnormal symptoms elsewhere in the body, or nonsyndromic. The presence of a dominant deafness gene in a family requires that only one parent carries and passes on the gene to their children for it to manifest itself. This usually produces hearing loss that continues in family members from one generation to the next.
Accurate diagnosis of nerve deafness involves rapid screening tests for hearing and audiometry. If nerve deafness is discovered, electroacoustic hearing aids that are placed in or behind the ear can be used for mild to moderate cases. Severe hearing loss may require the use of a cochlear implant, which requires a surgical procedure to embed the device’s internal component.
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