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Your ears are an incredibly intricate network of components, all working together to ensure you can hear sounds loudly and clearly. This complex organ consists of three main sections — the inner, middle and outer ear. Unlike sensorineural hearing loss, which results from problems with the inner ear, conductive hearing loss happens when sound cannot reach the outer and middle parts, making it hard for the individual to pick up soft noises and muffling louder ones.
This type of hearing loss can occur for many reasons, in both adults and children. However, get in touch with a professional audiologist, and they’ll be able to pinpoint the cause and offer treatment to resolve the issue quickly and effectively using their expertise and knowledge. Read on to learn more about conductive hearing loss, its causes, symptoms, and how to fix it.
What Causes Conductive Hearing Loss?
Typically, conductive hearing loss happens when a blockage in the middle or outer ear hampers the natural movement of sound waves, preventing them from fully reaching the inner part of the organ. Causes of this clog include:
- An excessive build-up of earwax in the ear canal.
- The growth of benign tumours or bony lesions narrowing the canal, often caused by frequent swims in cold water.
- A hole or thickening of the skin in the eardrum.
- Fluid from colds, allergies or infections trapped in the space between the eardrum and cochlea.
- Foreign bodies, such as an insect or broken cotton bud tip or, with children, beads and small plastic toys.
What Are the Symptoms of Conductive Hearing Loss?
Signs of conductive hearing loss start quite subtly and then get more pronounced over time, and as the delicate inner ear and auditory nerve are still intact, it’s the loudness of noises, not the clarity, that is affected. Symptoms the individual is likely to experience are:
- Pain or tenderness in one or both ears.
- A stuffy sensation or feeling of pressure in the ear
- Difficulty in holding phone conversations and hearing the radio or TV.
- Dizziness and disorientation.
- A steady loss of hearing.
How to Treat Conductive Hearing Loss
If you are suffering from hearing loss or have pain or discomfort in your ears, you must contact a qualified audiologist. Once they’ve conducted a series of tests to determine the issue and its severity, they’ll prescribe the best course of treatment and tailor it to your specific condition.
At Regain Hearing, our clinics are located across London, Kent and Essex. We offer a number of solutions to treat conductive hearing loss, for example, comfortable, pain-free and highly effective ear wax syringing and microsuction and the fitting of hearing aids and other assistive listening devices. As we’re an independent specialist hearing clinic, we offer over 350 different hearing aid models, and when you purchase with us, the price also includes free servicing, testing and aftercare for life.
However, our audiologists cannot treat some causes of conductive hearing loss, such as damage to the bones in the middle ear or a tear in the eardrum, as these require minor surgery or medication to clear up infections. But don’t worry, in these situations, we’ll work with you to find a specialist who can help.
Think you might be suffering from some form of hearing loss and not sure what to do? Contact Regain Hearing’s highly qualified team of audiologists by booking a consultation today! With clinics situated in London, Kent and Essex, we’re passionate about helping our patients regain an excellent quality of hearing.