If you’ve noticed that you can’t hear as well as you used to — for example, your dining companions sound muffled in restaurants or you find yourself increasing the TV volume to be able to follow along — you’re not alone. Roughly 38 million American adults report some kind of hearing trouble.
Life is noisy, but it’s important to stay tuned. Healthy hearing is a vital part of your overall well-being. If left untreated, hearing loss can lead to feelings of social isolation, depression, anxiety, and loss of confidence. It’s also tied to changes in cognition, including an increased risk of dementia in older adults.
That’s why we spoke with Dr. Daniel Jethanamest, associate professor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery and director of the Division of Otology, Neurotology, and Skull Base Surgery at NYU Langone, for his sound advice on how to maintain healthy hearing and when to seek care.
Hearing loss can affect people of all ages. It’s more common than you might think. My patients range from infants who are born with congenital hearing loss to patients in their 100s.
The most common form of hearing loss is presbycusis, which is estimated to affect two-thirds of US adults 70 and older.
Presbycusis is caused by nerve degeneration in the inner ear, which consists of the cochlea, a small, snail-like structure, and the auditory nerve, which carries information from the cochlea to the brain.
Presbycusis can be affected by different factors, but it’s often simply a result of getting older.
We’re all likely to experience some form of hearing loss as we age, but the degree of presbycusis and the rate of hearing decline can vary considerably based on a person’s genetics, past environmental exposure to sound, and other factors.
