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What Type of Hearing Aid Helps Persons with Nerve Damage in the Ear?

The most common form of hearing loss, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center, is classified as sensorineural. This can be caused by aging, injury, brain tumors, infections and damage to the nerves of the inner ear. Sensorineural hearing loss is usually permanent, but hearing aids generally help to amplify sounds enough to be understood, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD).

  1. Symptoms & Diagnosis

    • Although the symptoms of sensorineural hearing loss might come on suddenly in the event of some sort of traumatic injury, they usually appear gradually over time. Typically, a person suffering this type of hearing loss, according to the University of California, San Francisco, Medical Center, will complain that people seem to be mumbling or that he can hear, but is unable to understand what he is hearing. If you or a loved one is experiencing such symptoms, consult your doctor or an audiologist. You’ll probably undergo standard hearing tests in which tones of varying frequency and volume are transmitted to determine if and to what extent your hearing is impaired. Other diagnostic hearing tests include bone conduction, word recognition, acoustic immittance, otoacoustic emissions and auditory brainstem response.

    Cochlear Implants

    • If you are diagnosed with profound damage to your auditory or cochlear nerve, the most effective type of hearing aid might be a cochlear implant, according to the NIDCD. More than a conventional hearing aid, the cochlear implant is a two-part system that consists of an external portion and an electronic device that is surgically implanted under the skin. Components within those two portions of the system include a microphone to pick up sounds, a speech processor to identify and arrange sounds detected by the microphone, a stimulator that receives signals from the speech processor and converts them into electrical impulses, and an electrode array, located within the implanted device, that receives impulses from the stimulator and passes them along to working portions of the auditory nerve.

    Other Hearing Aids

    • If the damage to the nerves of your inner ear is less severe, other styles of conventional hearing aids probably will serve your needs equally well, although your doctor may recommend one based on your specific needs. Conventional hearing aids are available in three main styles, according to the NIDCD. These include behind-the-ear (BTE), made up of a hard plastic case that is worn behind your ear and connected to an earbud that fits snugly inside your outer ear; in-the-ear (ITE), in which all components are placed within your outer ear; and canal, tiny devices that are positioned inside the canal of your ear. Each style comes in models designed to remediate hearing loss ranging from mild to severe.

      Available in each of the hearing aid styles are two different electronics systems: digital and analog. According to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, “a computer chip in the (digital) aid analyzes the signals of your environment to determine if the sound is noise or speech and then makes modifications to provide a clear, amplified distortion-free signal.”

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