09 Jan Can you restore lost hearing?
This question requires one of those “good news, bad news” answers! The bad news is: once the hearing is lost, it’s impossible to restore it to how it was. The good news is: Although it is impossible to restore hearing, it is possible to treat and improve hearing loss with hearing aids!
There are several different types of hearing loss. By far, the most common type is a hearing loss that happens due to aging. The age-related hearing loss is so prevalent, in fact, that it has its own medical name: Presbycusis.
Our window of optimal hearing is small
Did you know that human hearing is at its best between ages 18-25? Unfortunately, by the time we reach our “golden years”, our hearing system has endured just as much wear and tear as the rest of our bodies, so it doesn’t work as well as it once did.
The aging process typically affects high-pitched hearing first. Children’s voices, women’s voices, and certain consonants (like T, S, and F) become challenging to distinguish. A person with hearing loss will often comment that other people seem to “mumble” or that speech is no longer “clear”.
Hearing aids can improve hearing loss
With today’s hearing instruments, addressing this type of hearing loss — or most types of hearing loss — is no longer a challenge. Digital technology enables a trained hearing professional to program specific and accurate amounts of amplification per pitch to offset the hearing loss.
Today’s digital technology also allows for the processing of sound in such a way that, not only can we offset the hearing loss by amplifying specific sounds like speech, but background noise can actually be reduced at the same time!
So, while hearing can never be restored to the way it was, hearing loss can be treated, helped and improved with amplification — and the impact it has on your life can be greatly diminished.
Source: https://www.starkey.com/blog/2017/12/Can-you-restore-lost-hearing
