Why Cant I Hear You?

By: Catryne Modena

April 18, 2012 Clearwater High School

Deafness comes in more than one size; it can be profound or mild. It can be conductive or sensorineural. That is because it is caused by many different things. There is such an array of causes no paper could cover them all in a timely manner, so Ill cover some of the largest factors. First are the different types of deafness a person can have. A person could have conductive hearing loss. Conductive hearing loss can happen over a period of time. It is when the sound vibrations dont transfer from the air surrounding a person to the bones of the inner ear as well as they normally should. This can range from mild where a person has a semi-hard time picking out the high frequency sounds from one another, to severe where they can only really hear the lowest frequency sounds. This can be caused by large exposures to loud sounds frequently. This noise causes wear and tear of the hair-like nerve cells in the cochlea. Once the hairs get worn down they dont transmit the sound vibrations as well as they could and some times they just stop working because they are so hurt. For example, music artists who perform on tour regularly have to have special earplugs formed for them to wear on stage so they dont damage their hearing too much. There is still damage, but minor damage cant be helped. Another is if someone works in a machine shop. They are around the cacophony of machines grinding, sawing, and welding whatever they are

making. Most machinists wear special protective gear to cover their ears so there isnt any extensive damage. Another cause is an injury to the head that has caused any shifts or fracturing of the little bones of your middle ear. That causes them not to carry the vibrations to your cochlea and therefore, distorts the sound. The other type of deafness is sensorineural deafness. It is where the acoustic nerve (the nerve that transfers the electrical pulses that the cochlea makes from the sound waves heard) does not or cannot do what it is designed to do. Ageing is the most common cause of sensorineural hearing loss because as we grow older sensory cells and inner ear nerves die. Some other causes of sensorineural hearing loss are injury, a multitude of loud noise exposure, select viral infections (such as measles or mumps), ototoxic drugs (drugs that damage a persons hearing), meningitis, diabetes, stroke, high fever, acoustic fever, and heredity. A common injure is just falling a hitting your head severely, or if you get hit by something. Most sensorineural hearing loss can be remedied with hearing aides. Often, it is not able to be medically or surgically treatable. It is the most common type of hearing loss in adults. About eighty percent of adults have some range of sensorineural hearing loss.

There is also mixed hearing loss. This is a mixture of conductive hearing loss and sensorineural hearing loss. It can range from mild to severe just like either one individually. There are several ailments that cause deafness also. These are just the most common ones: Congenital Rubella Syndrome, BOR Syndrome, and CHARGE Syndrome. Rubella is actually the German Measles. It develops into Congenital Rubella Syndrome when the fetus inside of a woman gets infected. It is at the easiest of infection during the first trimester of pregnancy. Common symptoms are cardiac, cerebral, auditory, and ophthalmic defects. Also, it may also cause premature birth, low birth weight, and often ends in miscarriages and still born babies. If the child survives through birth there are very high risk of heart malformations, deafness, blindness and other life threatening organ disorders. The deafness this causes is sensorineural and can range from mild to severe. About fifty eight percent patients with Congenital Rubella Syndrome develop or are born with this deafness. The second syndrome is BOR Syndrome. BOR stands for BronchioOTO-Renal. It is a dominant genetic condition that disrupts the development the tissues of the neck and cause malformations in the ears and kidneys. It

can result in hearing loss, ear pits, bronchial (neck) cysts or fistulas, and kidney anomalies. These are some of the more common symptoms. There are many more rarely seen symptoms. BOR syndrome can cause sensorineural hearing loss or mixed hearing loss depending on the case. The OTO- in BOR stands for ear since it is one of the most affected places of the body for a person with BOR syndrome. The outer shape of the ear (the pinna) can be abnormally shaped from this. Some people develop small holes or small flaps of skin just in front of the ear. The next syndrome is CHARGE Syndrome. CHARGE syndrome is a very complex syndrome that about 9-10,000 babies born world wide have. Much of the time there is no family history of CHARGE syndrome, it just happens. Babies born with CHARGE syndrome are born with life threatening birth defects that include heart defects and breathing issues. Despite these odds, most patients often surpass the medical, social, physical, and education expectations. CHARGE syndrome causes conductive hearing loss because it causes malformed bones in the ear which cause the vibrations to get disrupted and distorted. That is very, very common. Also, it causes a malformed cochlea. This causes balance loss, and more hearing loss. The semi circular canals are

either completely missing or smaller than normal. This occurs in ninety percent of all patients with CHARGE syndrome. I feel lucky that Ive never had any of these causes. Being deaf is no joke. It is something that is completely life altering and dangerous. I know that I will be more careful doing anything now. From going to concerts and visiting my dad in his machine shop, to walking on ice and crossing the road. There are so many more causes out there, it seems like anything can cause a smidgen of hearing loss. Some of them are a cholestoma, Central Auditory Processing Disorder, Glue ear, Minieres Disease, ect. Most of them have other symptoms than just deafness also. Overall, there are many, MANY different reasons why a person could not hear you.

Bibliography
. "Health Information." Hearing Loss. Mayo Clinic, 23/04/2011. Web. 16 Apr 2012. <http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/hearing-loss/DS00172/DSECTION=causes>. Hearing Loss- Causes of Deafness 02 July 2011. Acessed 16 April 2012. http://deafness.about.com/od/articlesandnewsletters/a/causes.htm BOR Syndrome Accessed 17 April 2012. http://www.potterssyndrome.org/bor.html About Charge 1998. Accessed 17 April 2012. http://chargesyndrome.org/aboutcharge.asp Types of Hearing Loss 2012. Accesses 18 April 2012. http://www.pamf.org/hearinghealth/facts/types.html