Have you ever been in the middle of the roadway and your car breaks down? It’s not a fun experience. You have to pull your car safely to the side of the road. And then, for some reason, you probably open your hood and take a look at your engine.
Humorously, you still do this despite the fact that you have no understanding of engines. Perhaps you think there’ll be a convenient knob you can turn or something. Inevitably, a tow truck will have to be called.
And it’s only when the experts check out things that you get a picture of the issue. That’s because cars are complex, there are so many moving parts and computerized software that the symptoms (a car that won’t move) aren’t enough to inform you as to what’s wrong.
The same thing can happen sometimes with hearing loss. The symptom itself doesn’t automatically indicate what the underlying cause is. There’s the usual cause (noise-related hearing loss), sure. But sometimes, something else like auditory neuropathy is the culprit.
What is auditory neuropathy?
Most people think of extremely loud noise such as a rock concert or a jet engine when they think of hearing loss. This kind of hearing loss, known as sensorineural hearing loss is a bit more complicated than that, but you get the point.
But sometimes, this type of long-term, noise related damage is not the cause of hearing loss. A condition known as auditory neuropathy, while less prevalent, can in some cases be the cause. When sound can’t, for whatever reason, be correctly transmitted to your brain even though your ear is receiving that sound just fine.
Symptoms of auditory neuropathy
The symptoms related to auditory neuropathy are, at first look, not all that distinct from those symptoms associated with traditional hearing loss. You can’t hear well in loud situations, you keep cranking the volume up on your television and other devices, that kind of thing. This can sometimes make auditory neuropathy hard to diagnose and manage.
Auditory neuropathy, however, has some specific symptoms that make recognizing it easier. These presentations are rather solid indicators that you aren’t confronting sensorineural hearing loss, but auditory neuropathy instead. Though, naturally, you’ll be better informed by an official diagnosis from us.
Here are a few of the more unique symptoms of auditory neuropathy:
- Sounds sound jumbled or confused: This is, once again, not an issue with volume. You can hear sounds but you simply can’t make sense of them. This can pertain to all sorts of sounds, not just spoken words.
- Sound fades in and out: The volume of sound seems to rise and fall like someone is messing with the volume knob. This could be an indication that you’re experiencing auditory neuropathy.
- Difficulty understanding speech: Sometimes, the volume of a word is just fine, but you just can’t distinguish what’s being said. The words sound mumbled or distorted.
What triggers auditory neuropathy?
These symptoms can be articulated, in part, by the underlying causes behind this particular disorder. On an individual level, the reasons why you might develop auditory neuropathy may not be entirely clear. Both adults and children can experience this condition. And, generally speaking, there are a couple of well described possible causes:
- Nerve damage: The hearing center of your brain receives sound from a particular nerve in your ear. If this nerve gets damaged, your brain can’t receive the complete signal, and consequently, the sounds it “interprets” will sound wrong. When this happens, you may interpret sounds as jumbled, unclear, or too quiet to discern.
- Damage to the cilia that send signals to the brain: If these little hairs inside of your inner ear become damaged in a specific way, the sound your ear senses can’t really be sent on to your brain, at least, not in its complete form.
Risk factors of auditory neuropathy
Some people will develop auditory neuropathy while other people won’t and no one is really sure why. That’s why there’s no exact science to combating it. But you may be at a higher risk of experiencing auditory neuropathy if you present certain close connections.
It should be mentioned that these risk factors aren’t guarantees, you may have every single one of these risk factors and not develop auditory neuropathy. But the more risk factors shown, the higher your statistical probability of experiencing this disorder.
Children’s risk factors
Factors that can raise the risk of auditory neuropathy for children include the following:
- Liver disorders that result in jaundice (a yellow look to the skin)
- An abundance of bilirubin in the blood (bilirubin is a normal byproduct of red blood cell breakdown)
- A low birth weight
- Preterm or premature birth
- A lack of oxygen before labor begins or during birth
- Other neurological disorders
Risk factors for adults
For adults, risk factors that raise your likelihood of experiencing auditory neuropathy include:
- auditory neuropathy and other hearing conditions that are passed on genetically
- Some medications (specifically incorrect use of medications that can cause hearing problems)
- Specific infectious diseases, like mumps
- Various kinds of immune diseases
In general, it’s a good idea to minimize these risks as much as you can. If risk factors are present, it may be a good idea to schedule regular screenings with us.
Diagnosing auditory neuropathy
During a typical hearing assessment, you’ll most likely be given a pair of headphones and be asked to raise your hand when you hear a tone. When you’re dealing with auditory neuropathy, that test will be of very limited use.
Rather, we will usually recommend one of two tests:
- Auditory brainstem response (ABR) test: Specialized electrodes will be attached to specific spots on your scalp and head with this test. This test isn’t painful or uncomfortable in any way so don’t be concerned. These electrodes track your brainwaves, with particular attention to how those brainwaves react to sound. Whether you’re experiencing sensorineural hearing loss (outer ear) or auditory neuropathy (inner ear) will be established by the quality of your brainwaves.
- Otoacoustic emissions (OAE) test: The reaction of your inner ear and cochlea to stimuli will be evaluated with this diagnostic. We will put a little microphone just inside your ear canal. Then a series of clicks and tones will be played. The diagnostic device will then determine how well your inner ear responds to those tones and clicks. The data will help determine whether the inner ear is the problem.
Diagnosing your auditory neuropathy will be much more successful once we run the applicable tests.
Does auditory neuropathy have any treatments?
So you can bring your ears to us for treatment in the same way that you take your car to the mechanic to have it fixed. In general, there’s no “cure” for auditory neuropathy. But there are several ways to treat this disorder.
- Hearing aids: Even if you have auditory neuropathy, in milder cases, hearing aids can boost sound enough to enable you to hear better. Hearing aids will be an adequate solution for some people. Having said that, this is not typically the case, because, once again, volume is virtually never the issue. Due to this, hearing aids are usually combined with other therapy and treatment options.
- Cochlear implant: Hearing aids won’t be capable of solving the problem for most individuals. In these cases, a cochlear implant could be needed. This implant, basically, takes the signals from your inner ear and carries them directly to your brain. They’re quite amazing! (And you can watch many YouTube videos of them working for patients.)
- Frequency modulation: Sometimes, it’s possible to hear better by boosting or reducing specific frequencies. With a technology called frequency modulation, that’s exactly what occurs. Basically, highly customized hearing aids are used in this strategy.
- Communication skills training: In some situations, any and all of these treatments might be combined with communication skills exercises. This will help you communicate with the hearing you have and work around your symptoms instead of treating them.
The sooner you get treatment, the better
Getting your disorder treated promptly will, as with any hearing condition, lead to better outcomes.
So it’s important to get your hearing loss treated right away whether it’s the ordinary form or auditory neuropathy. You’ll be able to get back to hearing better and enjoying your life once you schedule an appointment and get treated. This can be extremely crucial for children, who experience a lot of cognitive development and linguistic expansion during their early years.
