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 off the road. Then you likely open your hood and have a look at the engine. Who knows why?
What’s funny is that you do this even if you have no idea how engines work. Maybe you think there’ll be a handy knob you can turn or something. Ultimately, you have to call someone to tow your car to a mechanic.
And it’s only when the experts get a look at things that you get an understanding of the issue. That’s because cars are complex, there are so many moving pieces and computerized software that the symptoms (a car that won’t start) aren’t enough to tell you what’s wrong.
The same thing can happen sometimes with hearing loss. The symptom itself doesn’t automatically identify what the cause is. Sure, noise-related hearing loss is the usual cause. But in some cases, something else like auditory neuropathy is the cause.
What is auditory neuropathy?
Most individuals think of extremely loud noise like a rock concert or a jet engine when they consider hearing loss. This type of hearing loss, known as sensorineural hearing loss is a bit more complex than that, but you get the point.
But sometimes, long-term hearing loss can be the result of something else besides noise damage. While it’s less common, hearing loss can in some cases be caused by a condition known as auditory neuropathy. When sound can’t, for some reason, be correctly sent to your brain even though your ear is collecting that sound perfectly fine.
Auditory neuropathy symptoms
The symptoms of traditional noise related hearing loss can often look a lot like those of auditory neuropathy. Things like cranking up the volume on your devices and not being able to hear well in loud settings. That’s why diagnosing auditory neuropathy can be so difficult.
Still, auditory neuropathy does have some unique features that make it possible to identify. These presentations are rather strong indicators that you aren’t confronting sensorineural hearing loss, but auditory neuropathy instead. Of course, nothing can replace getting a real-time diagnosis from us about your hearing loss.
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. The volume of what you’re hearing is just fine, the problem is that the sounds seem jumbled and you can’t make sense of them. This can go beyond the speech and pertain to all kinds of sounds around you.
- Sound fades in and out: The volume of sound seems to go up and down like somebody is playing with the volume knob. If you’re dealing with these symptoms it may be a case of auditory neuropathy.
- Trouble understanding speech: Sometimes, you can’t make out what someone is saying even though the volume is normal. The words sound garbled or distorted.
What causes auditory neuropathy?
The root causes of this disorder can, in part, be explained by the symptoms. On a personal level, the reasons why you may develop auditory neuropathy might not be completely clear. This disorder can develop in both adults and children. And, broadly speaking, there are a couple of well described possible causes:
- The cilia that send signals to the brain can be compromised: Sound can’t be passed to your brain in full form once these little fragile hairs have been compromised in a particular way.
- Nerve damage: There’s a nerve that transmits sound signals from your inner ear to the hearing center of your brain. The sounds that the brain attempts to “interpret” will seem unclear if there is damage to this nerve. When this takes place, you might interpret sounds as jumbled, indecipherable, or too quiet to differentiate.
Risk factors of auditory neuropathy
No one is quite certain why some individuals will experience auditory neuropathy while others may not. That’s why there isn’t an exact science to preventing it. Still, there are close associations which might show that you’re at a higher risk of experiencing this disorder.
It should be noted that these risk factors are not guarantees, you could have every single one of these risk factors and not develop auditory neuropathy. But you’re more statistically likely to experience auditory neuropathy the more risk factors you have.
Children’s risk factors
Factors that can increase the risk of auditory neuropathy for children include the following:
- Other neurological disorders
- A lack of oxygen before labor begins or during birth
- A low birth weight
- An abundance of bilirubin in the blood (bilirubin is a normal byproduct of red blood cell breakdown)
- Liver disorders that lead to jaundice (a yellow appearance to the skin)
- Preterm or premature birth
Adult risk factors
Here are a few auditory neuropathy risk factors for adults:
- Overuse of medications that cause hearing issues
- Certain infectious diseases, such as mumps
- Various types of immune diseases
- Family history of hearing disorders, including auditory neuropathy
Generally, it’s a smart plan to limit these risks as much as possible. Scheduling regular screenings with us is a good plan, particularly if you do have risk factors.
Diagnosing auditory neuropathy
A normal hearing exam involves listening to tones with a set of headphones and raising a hand depending on which side you hear the tone on. That test won’t help very much with auditory neuropathy.
One of the following two tests will usually be done instead:
- Auditory brainstem response (ABR) test: Specialized electrodes will be attached to specific places 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 put specific emphasis on measuring how your brainwaves respond to sound stimuli. Whether you’re experiencing sensorineural hearing loss (outer ear) or auditory neuropathy (inner ear) will be determined by the quality of your brainwaves.
- Otoacoustic emissions (OAE) test: The response of your inner ear and cochlea to stimuli will be checked with this diagnostic. We will put a little microphone just inside your ear canal. Then, we will play a series of clicks and tones. Then your inner ear will be measured to see how it responds. If the inner ear is an issue, this data will expose it.
Once we run the appropriate tests, we will be able to more successfully diagnose and treat your auditory neuropathy.
Is there treatment for auditory neuropathy?
So, in the same way as you bring your car to the auto technician to have it fixed, you can bring your ears to us for treatment! auditory neuropathy generally has no cure. But this disorder can be managed in a few possible ways.
- Hearing aids: Even with auditory neuropathy, in moderate cases, hearing aids can boost sound enough to enable you to hear better. Hearing aids will be an adequate option for some people. Having said that, this is not generally the case, because, again, volume is virtually never the problem. As a result, hearing aids are often combined with other therapy and treatment solutions.
- Cochlear implant: Hearing aids won’t be able to solve the problem for most people. In these instances, a cochlear implant may be required. This implant, essentially, takes the signals from your inner ear and transports them directly to your brain. The internet has plenty of videos of individuals having success with these remarkable devices!
- Frequency modulation: In some cases, amplification or reduction of certain frequencies can help you hear better. With a technology known as frequency modulation, that’s precisely what occurs. Essentially, highly customized hearing aids are utilized in this strategy.
- Communication skills training: In some cases, any and all of these treatments may be combined with communication skills exercises. This will help you communicate using the hearing you have and work around your symptoms instead of treating them.
The sooner you get treatment, the better
Getting your disorder treated right away will, as with any hearing condition, produce better outcomes.
So if you suspect you have auditory neuropathy, or even just ordinary hearing loss, it’s important to get treatment as quickly as you can. The sooner you schedule an appointment, the more quickly you’ll be able to hear better, and get back to your everyday life! Children, who experience a great deal of cognitive growth and development, particularly need to have their hearing treated as soon as possible.