Hearing disorders can appear at any age and can be caused by various factors. It is important to see a specialist early enough to have the problem diagnosed and receive information on possible treatment.
Hearing disorder diagnostics is particularly important in children, who should be carefully observed by their guardians to establish the potential loss and correct it if possible before they have significant impact on the child’s development.
This is particularly important in the case of infants and small children. In this group, the major symptom of hearing disorders may be speech delay or no speech at all.
Types of hearing loss
Hearing loss is divided into conductive, receptive, and mixed.
Conductive loss is the most common hearing disorder in children. This is never a complete loss of hearing, but various stages of partial loss, mainly in the range of low frequencies.
In this case, the damage concerns the middle ear, whereas the most important part of the ear – the inner ear with the auditory nerves – works correctly.
It is different in the case of receptive loss – this damage concerns the organ of Corti (a part of the inner ear), the auditory nerve, or the central organs of the auditory tract. In most cases, the disorder is irreversible.
Mixed loss is present with simultaneous damage to the middle and inner ear.
What causes hearing disorders and how can they be diagnosed
The causes of hearing disorders may vary – from hereditary, through those appearing in infancy (e.g. due to rubella experienced by the mother), perinatal factors (e.g. oxygen deficiency), to factors appearing after birth (e.g. infections).
A separate group is composed of hearing disorders caused by age and hearing loss caused by noise – it can be the effect of the so-called acoustic injury or lengthy exposure to excessive noise.
Today, all Polish children undergo their first hearing examination right after their birth as part of preventive screening tests. If it should show any disorders, the diagnostic process continues, and may involve tympanometry, otoacoustic emission, or the BERA test.
What tests will diagnose the disorder
Tympanometry is based on the establishment of the stiffness level of the tympanic membrane. The test is ordered by a physician. Otoacoustic emission allows the diagnosis of receptive disorders.
“In turn, the BERA test examines the potential of the brainstem; it is usually performed during sleep, and in special cases, e.g. children with neurological disorders, under general anaesthesia," tells Dr. Anna Wakarow, audiologist and phoniatrist at the Otolaryngolodzy 24 clinic.
Older children cooperating with physicians and adults are usually subject to audiometric tests (which are also referred to as the tone threshold examination).
As described by the Polish Association of Audiologists, this examination is performed in a special low-noise cabin. The patient is wearing earphones, which transmit various clear tones – from deep bass to high and high-pitched squeaks. If the subject hears a sound on the earphones, he or she confirms this by pressing an adequate button, and the tester starts to reduce the volume in order to establish the moment, when it is hard to hear by the patient. This moment is referred to as the hearing threshold.
The examination is performed for each ear individually, and its result is presented in form of a chart, which is called the audiogram. It is used to diagnose if a patient requires hearing aids.
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