Hearing loss in children: Classification and treatment

Most hearing loss in children is preventable. Appropriate treatments will help babies recover from hearing loss.

Hearing loss can occur at any age, but it can have serious consequences in the first years of life. Hearing is the foundation for speech development, only when hearing normally, can babies speak clearly. Therefore, if your baby has hearing loss at a young age, you need to pay more attention to your baby, because even temporary hearing loss in childhood makes it difficult for him to absorb language.

About hearing loss

Most babies experience mild hearing loss due to fluid build up in the middle ear during an allergy or cold. This is only temporary and will return to normal once the cold and allergy is gone , then the Eustachian tube (the tube connecting the ear and throat) will release the remaining liquid into the throat. About 1 in 10 children get this fluid infection due to problems with the Eustachian hose.

Infected babies often do not hear as well as normal and sometimes have difficulty speaking. A less common but dangerous type of language development is permanent hearing loss, mild hearing loss in only one ear, and severe hearing loss on both sides.

There are 2 types of hearing loss:

Conductive hearing loss: due to problems with the ear canal, eardrum, middle ear and the small bones in the ear canal (hammer, incus and stapes);

Hearing loss: due to problems inside the ear (this is also known as neurologic hearing loss).

Conductive hearing loss

Reason:

Deformation of the outer ear, ear canal or ear structure;

Fluid in the middle ear caused by a cold;

Ear infection (otitis media - infection of the middle ear, in which fluid accumulation can interfere with the movement of the eardrum and small bones);

Allergy;

Eustachian nozzles decreased or dysfunction;

Eardrum;

Benign tumors;

Earwax obstruction;

Ear canal infection;

Water in the ear;

Injuries (eg skull fractures);

Sclerosis of the ears.

Treatments for conductive hearing loss

There are two types of conductive hearing loss: congenital ear canal defect (ear canal loss of function at birth) and deformity (dysfunction of middle ear structures). All of the above defects can be treated with surgery. If the patient is not suitable for surgery, it can be replaced with a bone conduction hearing aid, using a bone graft surgery device (eg Baha or Ponto systems) or using a conventional hearing aid. Which treatment to choose depends on the condition of the optic nerve.

Your doctor will treat the acute infection with antibiotics or an antifungal. If a long-term ear infection and tumor are present, surgery is required. Treatment of chronic infectious ear fluid requires antibiotics, while non-chronic requires surgery or a pressure balancing tube.

If the ear is damaged by a head injury, the doctor will perform surgery to repair the damaged ear structures once the patient has stabilized after the acute injury.

An inherited form of conductive hearing loss is sclerosis, in which the stirrup (3rd small bone in the middle ear) is immobilized so that sound cannot reach the middle ear. Hard of the ear often presents with hearing loss in adulthood. To treat sclerosis, you need surgical removal to replace the immobile bones with a prosthetic or a hearing aid.

Studies show that the measles virus causes the hardening of bones in people who have a genetic hardening of the ears. Therefore, you must have your child vaccinated against measles to reduce the risk. Ear sclerosis often leads to hearing loss due to problems with the outer and middle ear. In addition, it can also cause poor reception (sensory cells or nerve fibers of the inner ear are damaged) as well as conductive hearing loss but with less frequency.

Hearing loss of reception

Reason

Exposure to loud noise;

Head injury;

Virus or disease;

Autoimmune disease in the inner ear;

Genetic;

Old age;

Deformed inner ear;

Meniere's Disease ;

Ear sclerosis - a genetic disorder that leads to bone growth around the bone of a small bone in the middle ear, preventing it from vibrating during sound stimulation;

Tumor.

Treatment methods for hearing loss of reception

In the event of a sound injury, treatment with corticosteroids is needed to reduce swelling and inflammation of the cochlear cells in order to improve and heal damaged structures;

In cases of reception hearing loss due to head injuries or sudden changes in air pressure on aircraft causing rupture, fluid leakage into ear, inner ear poisoning, surgical treatment is required;

The doctor will treat viral reception hearing loss with corticosteroids;

If you have received hearing loss for several months and your doctor diagnosed an autoimmune disease in the ear, you need long-term corticosteroid therapy and combined with drug therapy. Autoimmune disease in the inner ear occurs when the body's immune system attacks the structures of the ear on its own;

When you have hearing loss with an unknown cause or related to Meniere's disease, you need to apply a diet, use diuretics and corticosteroids. Symptoms of Meniere's disease include hearing loss, tinnitus, and dizziness. If after treatment, you are still dizzy, you need to intervene with many surgical methods;

If you have hearing loss due to tumors then it is necessary to have surgery to remove or radiotherapy. If the tumor is small and the hearing loss is mild, you will recover 50%;

Irreversible reception hearing loss is the most common form of hearing loss and requires hearing aid treatment. If that doesn't work, your doctor will perform cochlear implant surgery.

When do you need to take your baby to the doctor?

Here are some warning signs and symptoms that you should take your baby to see:

Babies are not startled by loud noises and do not turn toward sound for 3–4 months;

Your baby won't notice you until he sees you;

Children are slow to speak or confusing, can only speak single words such as "daddy", "ma" in the period of 12-15 months;

The baby did not respond when called;

Your baby can only hear certain sounds;

Babies are hearing impaired and have difficulty keeping their heads fixed, sit slowly and have difficulty walking because in some children with hearing loss, one ear controls the balance and head movement is also affected.

Hopefully the article has provided you with useful information about the hearing impairment in children to have a better way of taking care of them.