Over 5% of the world's population suffers from some kind of hearing disability. The issue is severe and affects the daily lives of patients. Communication, interaction, and even relationships get severely impacted by hearing loss. Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) is the most common type of hearing disability to disrupt human lives.

What is Sensorineural Hearing Loss?

Hearing difficulties due to aging, exposure to consistent loud noises, or some kind of infection fall under SNHL. It means that either the nerves running from your ear to your brain have decayed, or the hair cells located in your inner ear are damaged.

These hair cells are sound receptors that translate external sounds to electrical impulses and send them to the brain via the auditory nerve for interpretation. Degree of the hearing loss depends on the severity of the damage.

Generally, SNHL starts slow and gets worse over time. The symptoms vary from person to person depending on the frequency of sound that has been affected the most. It’s possible to witness the symptoms in only one ear.

Can it be cured?

The treatment for SNHL is driven by the degree of severity. It’s important to detect the symptoms at the early stages.

However, sensorineural hearing loss is not curable. No surgery can reverse the damage done to the hair cells or nerve receptors. SNHL has a permanent, chronic effect that can only be treated, but never cured.

What can we do?

Hearing aids and cochlear implants restore some hearing and reduce the symptoms of SNHL. While hearing aids make the sound in your environment louder, cochlear implants create electrical pulses to perceive sound. The latter is for more severe conditions when even hearing aids do not help.

Since SNHL gets worse with age, effective and early treatment is necessary. Even though the condition cannot be cured, it can be managed enough to lead a healthy lifestyle.