Hearing Loss - Sensorineural

What is sensorineural hearing loss?

Everybody loses these tiny hair cells in the cochlea throughout life, while the hearing gradually becomes less acute.

However, the hair cells can also be damaged by excessive noise. As a result of prolonged exposure to high intensity noise either from the work environment or from listening to loud music, sensorineural hearing impairment is becoming more common.

You can also suffer from sensorineural hearing loss having been exposed to diseases such as mumps, meningitis, multiple sclerosis, ménières disease or if you have used certain drugs, in particular aspirin, cisplatin, quinine or the antibiotics streptomycin and gentamicin.

Sensorineural hearing impairment may also occur if your mother has had rubella (German measles) during pregnancy, or if your birth weight was low.

Sensorineural hearing loss can be inherited and finally you may lose your hearing ability due to head/ear injuries.

A ski slope hearing loss and a cookie bite hearing loss are two classical types of a sensorineural hearing loss.

Treatment of sensorineural hearing loss

People with sensorineural hearing loss cannot regain their hearing, but most people find sensorineural hearing aids very helpful. A few cases of sensorineural hearing loss can be (partly)treated by means of an operation.

Sudden sensorineural hearing loss

A certain type of sensorineural hearing loss is called sudden sensorineural hearing loss or just sudden hearing loss. If you experience a sudden sensorineural hearing loss you should contact a doctor as soon as possible.