Beyond the Ear Drum

There’s a lot more to the ear than what we can see.

Before we can really understand hearing loss, it’s important to understand why people have hearing loss and what actually goes on in the ear.

The ear is made up three parts:

1. The outer ear: ear canal and eardrum

2. The middle ear: three tiny bones called ossicles

-Malleus

-Incus

-Stapes

3. The inner ear:

-cochlea (nerves for hearing)

-Vestibule (balance)

-Semicircular canals (balance)

When sound enters the outer ear, it travels down the ear canal and strikes the eardrum. This causes the ossicles to vibrate and send sound waves to the cochlea. This forces tiny hair cells to vibrate and it sends a signal to the brain where the it is processed into sound.

So, what happens when someone has a hearing loss?

There are many different things that happen when someone as a hearing loss. Any and/or all parts of the ear can be affected. Earwax, ruptured eardrum, tumors, etc. are all ways that the ear can be affected. However, the main reason the brain has difficulty processing sound is because the hair cells (talked about above) that send signals to the brain are laying down instead of standing up.

This limits the sound waves being sent to the brain which is why hearing-impaired people will often get parts of the segment of speech or sound, but not the entire thing. If someone is 100% deaf, this means all their hair cells are damaged. Once the hair cells are damaged, there is no going back. That is why it is so important to take care of your hearing.

#hearingloss #earanatomy