According to WHO, there are 360 million persons in the world with disabling hearing loss. Disabling hearing loss is defined as adults (15 years and older): hearing loss greater than 40 decibels (dB) in the better hearing ear; and Children (0 – 14 years of age): hearing loss greater than 30 dB in the better hearing ear. 

International Week of the Deaf starts in the last week of September and ends on the last Sunday of the month. This last Sunday is known as World Day of Deaf. This day is celebrated to draw the attention of not only affected people and their family members but also to draw the attention of general people, politicians, and development authorities towards the achievements and challenges of the deaf community. We at Medicircle are conducting the World Day of Deaf Awareness Day Series to create awareness on the prevention and control of hearing impairment. 

Dr. Sindhu Kalyanaraman is an ENT/ Otorhinolaryngologist in West Mambalam, Chennai, and has experience of 2 years in this field. Dr. Sindhu Kalyanaraman practices at Public Health Centre in West Mambalam, Chennai, and Apollo Medical Center in T Nagar, Chennai. She is a member of BN. She is expertise in Ear Drum Repair, Nasal Polypectomy, Nasal, and Sinus Allergy Care, Hearing Deficiency Assessment and Tonsillitis Treatment, etc.

Causes of Deafness

Dr begins, “Deafness is more than 40 dB hearing loss in the better hearing ear for adults and more than 30 dB hearing loss in the better hearing ear in children. There are two types of deafness.  One is Congenital and the other is Acquired. So congenital, as the name suggests, is deafness that occurs during birth. This happens due to many causes, the first one being the genetic process. At least very recent, the cause behind this was consanguineous marriage.

Then there is syndromic deafness which is accused by some syndrome, like down syndrome or others. Other causes of congenital deafness include maternal infections like rubella, trauma during pregnancy, diabetes, low birth weight, and prenatal delivery. These factors should be evaluated through newborn screening.”

Adding to it, “The other type of deafness is acquired deafness. That is deafness that occurs after birth. The most common cause of that is noise pollution. Earlier it used to be common for people to work in factories, airports, traffic-heavy areas, or policemen. But nowadays, it has escalated and become a serious concern.

Everyone is using headphones and earphones which exposes noise to many. We see many people coming to doctors with the problem of noise-induced hearing loss due to the usage of earphones. This problem is widely seen. Other problems are infections in the ear. This should be evaluated as soon as they recognize a problem, for both newborns and adults as well."

Right time to consult a doctor?

She exclaims, “Immediately! As soon as a child is born. Nowadays, most hospitals do newborn screening that is using a machine called Otoacoustic emissions, to check whether the baby is able to hear. Here we are not looking for words or sounds, even recognising a clap is enough. With this, we can find out whether the baby's hair cells are working or not. Apart from this, there is audiogram test and other acoustic emission tests are done.

As far as adults are concerned, when you recognise that your hearing is reduced or one ear is hearing less than the other, then you must immediately consult a doctor. The doctor will look inside the ear and check for any wax or any cleaning that it needs. The doctor may also send to get an audiogram which is a hearing test.”

Things to avoid for better hearing 

She suggests, “Many times people fall victim to wrong traditional remedies. What I would suggest is to eat well and exercise well. Exercise increases the blood flow to the ear which will keep the nerve intact. Many people are in the habit of using buds but I would recommend not doing so as the ear is a very self-cleansing organ. So you don't have to do anything extra and introduce infection into the year. A lot of people put coconut oil, please don’t do that. Avoid it as we don’t know if your ear has wax or infections. It will just add fuel to the fire.

With children, especially with infants, the parents think that the child will respond to thor voices in some time. They think it's normal and the delayed time is no big deal. I suggest to please don’t wait. If you think your child is not able to hear then consult a doctor, we will do the necessary tests. And if there is a problem, we can look for a solution right away.”

Treatments for Hearing Loss

She says, “When it comes to babies the first step is to test how much the baby is able to hear. With this, we will be able to find out the size of the problem whether it is mild, moderate, severe, or profound. For mild and moderate, we can use hearing aids. There are hearing aids available for even young ones. This will help them to hear and that enables them to speak as well.

For severe and profound hearing loss, hearing aids may not be the ideal solution. So we have what is called cochlear implantation. The cochlear implantation is an electrical device that is implanted directly into the cochlea so that the nerve gets stimulated. We get tremendous support from the government. We get a lot of sponsorship from the government for those parents who are not able to afford it.

Along with cochlear implantation, there is also speech and voice therapy and other rehabilitation that are provided as treatments for babies. For adults, we recommend solutions after understanding the problem. Do we have to find what is the cause? Is it noise or is it an infection or trauma?

For infections, we first give antibiotics and other drugs and if needed surgery. For trauma, it is the same thing. We see if surgery is needed and only then do we proceed with surgery. For noise-induced hearing loss, first, they need to stop the exposure to the noise then a hearing aid is provided in most cases.”

(Edited by Priyal Shah)