Table of contents:
Deafness is a hearing loss that results in a partial or total inability to hear. Patients who are hearing impaired (deaf) often have problems communicating in noisy places. Although hearing aids, cochlear implants, lip reading, and use of sign language can greatly assist them in communicating, the question remains - "can deafness be completely cured?"
Can the deaf not hear at all?
Whether or not a deaf person can hear it depends on the level he is suffering from.
There are several levels of deafness that you need to know. Here's the explanation.
- Light deafness. Patients can only detect sounds between 25-29 dB. They may find it difficult to understand what other people are saying, especially if there is a lot of noise around them.
- Being deaf. Patients can only detect sounds between 40-69 dB. Following a conversation is very difficult without using hearing aids.
- Severe deaf. The patient only hears sounds above 70-89 dB. People who are very deaf should read well or use sign language to communicate, even if they have hearing aids.
- Total deafness. The patient cannot hear any sound below 90 dB meaning he cannot hear anything, at any decibel level. Communication is carried out by means of sign language and / or lip-reading.
So, there are deaf people who can hear sounds or sounds at a certain volume. There are also deaf people who can't hear any sounds or sounds at all.
What are the causes?
According to Penn State News, Judith Creuz, Au.D . Certain infections and drugs, including some used for cancer chemotherapy, can cause a person to lose hearing. Deafness can also be genetic, or it can result from damage to cells in the uterus. However, exposure to noise, such as loud music or heavy machinery sounds, is what causes many people to lose their hearing.
So, deafness can occur due to illness or exposure to loud noise. These causes damage or disrupt the cochlear nerve (auditory or acoustic nerve) thereby preventing the sound signals picked up by the cochlea from reaching the brain.
Then, can deafness be cured?
Reporting from Medical News Today, a team of researchers from the University of Sheffield in the UK used human embryonic stem cells to correct a similar type of hearing loss in gerbils - a type of rodent. Many people around the world have moderate to total deafness due to an incorrect connection between the inner ear and the brain.
By looking at gerbils and human embryonic stem cells, the researchers explained how they repaired an important part of that connection, the auditory nerve. As a result, the gerbil experienced an increase in hearing by 46%.
Dr. Ralph Holme, Head of Research at the Royal National Institute for Deaf People, responded to the breakthrough: "These findings raise real hopes that one day it will be possible to remedy the causes of some types of hearing loss."
Unfortunately, until now deafness cannot be cured and this breakthrough cannot be applied to humans. However, scientists are still doing research.
Even though they cannot recover, deaf people can still be helped with a number of assistive devices, such as loudspeakers or hearing aids (cochlear implants). In addition, there are many ways to help the deaf communicate, for example by using sign language and learning to lip-read.
