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Hearing

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Submitted By charbug1225
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Hearing Loss Hearing loss has always been an interesting topic to me. Before I was born my father damaged his hearing from listening to music too loud in college and loud noises in general. He wears hearing aids to help him hear everything from his students talking at school to the television at home. I use to ride to his audiologist appointments with him all the time because I thought the process of testing his hearing and the process of making and adjusting his hearing aids was so interesting and exciting. That is why I chose hearing loss as my topic. Hearing loss is defined by Farlex as; any degree of impairment of the ability to hear sound (Farlex, 2013). In other words if you cannot hear whispering or if you cannot hear fireworks you have some sort of hearing loss. “About 26 million Americans between the ages of 20 and 69 have high frequency hearing loss due to exposure to loud noises at work or in leisure activities” (Disorders, 2013). There are three different types of hearing loss and different severities. There is conductive hearing loss, sensorineural hearing loss, and mixed Hearing loss. Dr. Michael P. Robb defines conductive hearing loss as; hearing loss due to problems affecting sound transmission through the outer or middle ear (Robb, 2010). In other words, if you have a problem with your outer or middle ear, such as an obstruction of the ear canal, or otitis externa, (swimmers ear), you would have conductive hearing loss. These are treatable with medicine or surgery if treated early enough but, can become permanent if not treated. Dr. Michael P. Robb defines sensorineural hearing loss as damage to the inner ear or nerve pathways leading to the brain (Robb, 2010). Some of the things that can cause inner ear problems are ototoxic drugs (medicines that cause hearing loss as a side affect), Meningitis (inflammation of the protective tissue that

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