Deafness and Hearing Impairments

Hearing is one of the traditional five senses. It is the ability to perceive sound by detecting vibrations via an organ such as the ear. The inability to hear is called deafness.

A hearing impairment or hearing loss is a full or partial decrease in the ability to detect or understand sounds. Caused by a wide range of biological and environmental factors, loss of hearing can happen to any organism that perceives sound.

A sensorineural hearing loss is due to insensitivity of the inner ear, the cochlea, or to impairment of function in the auditory nervous system. It can be mild, moderate, severe, or profound, to the point of total deafness. This is classified as a disability under the ADA and if unable to work is eligible for disability payments.

Hearing loss can be inherited. Both dominant gene and recessive genes exist which can cause mild to profound impairment. If a family has a dominant gene for deafness it will persist across generations because it will manifest itself in the offspring even if it is inherited from only one parent.

Hearing Impairment Articles

Brandt-Daroff Semont Epley Exercises for Balance Disorders
A balance disorder is a disturbance that causes an individual to feel unsteady, giddy, woozy, or have a sensation of movement, spinning, or floating. This article explains balance disorders and provides instructional videos on the Epley, Brandt-Daroff, and Semont exercise maneuvers for BPPV.

Famous People with Menieres Disease
Ménière's disease is an abnormality of the inner ear causing a host of symptoms, including vertigo or severe dizziness, tinnitus or a roaring sound in the ears, fluctuating hearing loss, and the sensation of pressure or pain in the affected ear. This is a list of famous people who had and have Ménière's disease.

Famous Well Known People with Hearing Impairments and Deafness
List of famous and well known people who are or were deaf and have or had hearing impairments.

Text Phones for the Deaf
There are approximately 70 million deaf, hard-of-hearing and speech-impaired people worldwide. All of which could not use phones to communicate until recently. This article reviews some of the available home phones and cell phones that cater for the hearing impaired.

Disaster Preparedness from a Deaf Persons Perspective
At 9:15 a.m. November 1, the facility manager of a Federal building in Washington DC received a bomb threat, the third within the past month.  The facility manager pulled the alarm and the employees in the building casually evacuated into the cold frosty morning air.

How to Stop Hearing Loss
How can you tell if you will have hearing loss when you get older? First you have to protect your ears from over stimulation. Listening to loud music with or without ear phone can damage your ear and make them less sensitive as you age.

Types of Hearing Loss
Most hearing loss results from damage to the cochlea ( a coiled structure in the inner ear responsible for hearing ). This loss is usually a result of prolonged exposure to loud noises of 85 decibel or higher.

Hearing Aids - How they Work and Reviews
All about hearing aids including how they work what to look for when purchasing and digital hearing aid comparisons.

Garlic can Fight and Cure Ear Infections
I discovered the true power of fresh garlic a little over 15 years ago. My oldest son had chronic ear infections starting from a very young age, and he was on prescription antibiotics almost constantly. He ended up having drainage tubes surgically placed in his ears about 5 or 6 times.

Tinnitus and Your True Hearts Desire
It's important for Tinnitus sufferers to focus on what they want instead of what they don't want. For example; if you focus on how bad your tinnitus is, it can't possibly get any better.

Treatment for Tinnitus
 The treatment options for Tinnitus vary significantly depending upon the cause of your problem. Some cases of Tinnitus may be treated successfully while others result in a disability the patient must learn to live with.

Personal Tinnitus Story
Perhaps the tinnitus was caused by all of those over-the-counter decongestants I was taking for my flu, or maybe it was the stress of being at the pinnacle of my performing career, or maybe it was the news that my wife, Nancy, was giving up a good paying job, or a combination thereof.

Learning To Communicate With Deaf People
Dealing with deaf people does not necessarily have to significantly alter the way that you get your message across. Even with hearing people verbal communication only makes up a small component of the way a message is delivered.

Hearing Loss Disability
Hearing is a complicated process involving both the sensitivity of the ear, as well as the ability to understand, and interpret the speech. When we hear sounds, we really are interpreting patterns of air molecules in the form of waves. . The ear is able to pick up these waves, and convert them into electrical signals that are sent to the brain.

What is Tinnitus?
Ringing. Buzzing. Roaring. Whooshing. Chirping. Beating. Humming. You may enjoy these sounds in nature, but not when they come from inside your head.