Definition
This type of hearing loss generally occurs when some of the hair cells within the hearing organ, the cochlea, are damaged.
Cause
The most common causes are:
- Aging (called Presbycusic hearing loss),
- A hearing loss due to noise exposure (called Noise-induced hearing loss), or
- Trauma to the ear.
If a child is born with sensorineural hearing loss, it is most likely due to:
- A genetic syndrome, or
- An infection passed from mother to baby inside the womb, such as toxoplasmosis, rubella, or herpes.
Less common causes may include:
- Meniere’s disease
- Autoimmune disease
- Infections such as mumps
- Heart diseases and diabetes
- Stroke
- Ototoxicity (hearing loss caused by certain medication and/or certain chemotherapy drugs)
- Concussions and traumatic brain injuries that damage the inner ear or auditory nerve
- Very rarely, due to an Acoustic neuroma or other cancerous growths in the inner ear
Symptoms
A Sensorineural hearing loss will generally affect both the loudness and the clarity of sounds. Many patients have a high-frequency hearing loss, resulting in the following difficulties:
- Speech of others may seem muffled. Patients often say: “I can hear people are talking to me, but what they’re saying just isn’t clear.”
- Difficulty hearing in a group, especially when there is a lot of background chatter or noise
- A persistent ringing or buzzing in the ears (tinnitus)
- Problems listening in noisy environments like restaurants
- Difficulty hearing women’s or children’s voices and other high-pitched sounds
- Specific speech sounds are difficult to hear during conversations (e.g., the “s” or “th” sound)
- Loud sounds may be painful to listen to
- A feeling of being off-balance or dizzy