Listening and language are important means for human beings to communicate with each other and know the world. However, the haze of ear disease and hearing impairment is plaguing human beings. According to the statistics of the World Health Organization, there are nearly 600 million people with mild hearing loss and 250 million people with moderate hearing loss. There are 20.57 million hearing-impaired people in China, ranking first among all kinds of disabilities, which seriously affects the improvement of the health level of the whole people.
Hearing is an indispensable communication channel for human beings in social life. There is a song that sings well: Please take my song back to your home. How to take the song home? This uses our ears. Ears are an indispensable part of everyone. Although deafness does not affect people's lives, it seriously affects people's quality of life, especially children before the age of two. Without timely treatment and special training, they are likely to become deaf and dumb, which will bring great inconvenience to their future lives. In addition, deaf people often form psychological defects and even mental disabilities because they can't communicate well with others. So, how to protect our ears correctly? Tian Jingfa, deputy director of the outpatient department of the 304 Hospital of the People's Liberation Army and an expert in otolaryngology, made the following introduction.
In recent years, due to drugs, heredity, infection, diseases, environmental noise pollution, accidents and other reasons, there are about 30,000 new deaf children in China every year. Hearing impairment has brought inconvenience to this group in all aspects, seriously affecting their life, study and social interaction. At present, there are 20.57 million deaf people in China. 1In March, 1998, at the first meeting of the Ninth National Committee of the China People's Political Consultative Conference, some CPPCC members put forward a proposal of "establishing a publicity campaign for the love of ears" in view of the fact that the incidence of deafness in China is high, the number is large, the harm is great and the prevention and control work is weak. The Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education and other ministries attach great importance to it, and unanimously agree to establish March 3rd every year as National Ear Love Day. Since then, there has been such a ""
Everyone has two ears, but not everyone really knows. Our ears are composed of outer ear, middle ear and inner ear. It has the function of producing hearing and balance. Normal people's ears can distinguish about 400 thousand different sounds. How does the ear hear it? When the sound is emitted, the surrounding air molecules start a series of vibrations. These vibrations are sound waves, which propagate outward from the sound source. After the sound reaches the external ear, it is introduced into the external auditory canal through the sound collection function of the auricle and reaches the tympanic membrane. When sound waves hit the eardrum, it will cause the eardrum to vibrate. In the middle ear cavity inside the eardrum, there are three ossicles only the size of rice grains connected with each other. Next to the eardrum is the mallet (like an iron mallet), followed by the incus (like an anvil) and finally the stirrup (like a stirrup). When sound waves vibrate the eardrum, the ossicles also vibrate. Three ossicles amplify sound and transmit it to the inner ear. The last stapes of the three ossicles is connected to a small membrane called oval window. Oval window is the gateway to the inner ear, which has an organ specialized in hearing-cochlea. When the stapes vibrates, so does the oval window. On the other side of the oval window is a cochlear catheter filled with liquid. When the elliptical window vibrates, the liquid also begins to flow. There are thousands of hair cells in the cochlea with tiny cilia at the top. When the liquid flows, the cilia of these cells are impacted. After a series of bioelectrical changes, hair cells convert sound signals into bioelectrical signals, which are transmitted to the brain through auditory nerves. The brain processes and integrates the transmitted information to produce hearing.
There are many reasons for hearing loss, both congenital and acquired. It is caused by heredity, infection, disease, environmental noise pollution, accidents and other reasons, and it is also caused by improper medication. In daily life, there are also many factors that damage hearing. For example, living in a noisy environment for a long time and listening to music with headphones for a long time; Women who use drugs that cause deafness during pregnancy, such as kanamycin, gentamicin or streptomycin, especially when they are infected with measles in the early pregnancy (within three months), are also prone to fetal malformation and deafness; In addition, there are accidents that cause ear damage and so on.
Deafness is divided into:
Functional deafness is also called mental deafness or hysterical deafness. It is a kind of non-organic deafness. Usually caused by psychological trauma. The main clinical manifestations are sudden and severe unilateral or bilateral hearing loss without tinnitus and dizziness. There are hysteria symptoms such as silence, numbness of limbs and excessive gaze.
Mixed deafness is caused by the simultaneous involvement of the sound transmission system and the sound sensing system of the ear, which affects the transmission of sound waves to the middle ear, the feeling of sound waves and the transmission of sound signals to the center. For example, senile deafness is mostly mixed deafness.
Sensorineural deafness is a phenomenon that the auditory nerve, auditory conduction pathway or central neurons are damaged, which leads to the disorder of sound perception and nerve impulse transmission, and is called sensorineural deafness.
Clinically, it is mainly divided into:
A, congenital deafness, hearing impairment at birth or shortly after birth. Hereditary deafness refers to sensorineural deafness caused by genetic or chromosomal abnormalities. In early pregnancy, the mother suffers from rubella, mumps, influenza and other viral infectious diseases, or taking a large number of ototoxic drugs can make the fetus deaf. In addition, fetal hypoxia and asphyxia caused by birth injury can also lead to deafness; B, presbycusis; C, infectious pathogenic deafness. Refers to the sensorineural deafness produced or complicated by various acute and chronic infectious diseases. D. Deafness caused by diseases, such as hypertension, arteriosclerosis, Meniere's disease, cochlear otosclerosis, cerebellopontine angle occupying disease, multiple sclerosis, etc. E. ototoxic deafness. Refers to deafness caused by drug abuse or long-term contact with certain chemicals; F, traumatic deafness; G, idiopathic sudden deafness. Refers to sudden severe progressive sensorineural deafness; H, autoimmune deafness and so on. No matter what kind of deafness, it is because the receiving or conducting system of the ear is damaged, and the normal connection cannot be established, resulting in the sound being disconnected on the way.
Diagnose deafness. The frequency range of human audible sound is 20-20000 Hz, and the frequency range of general speech is 500-3000 Hz, of which 500-2000 Hz is the most common. Therefore, the clinical classification of deafness is based on the average hearing threshold of 500-2000 Hz.
Mild hearing loss (mild deafness) can't hear the whisper clearly within a general distance, and the average hearing threshold is 26-40 decibels.
Moderate hearing loss (moderate deafness), also known as level 2 deafness, makes it difficult to hear ordinary conversations clearly. The average hearing threshold is 4 1-55 dB.
Moderate and severe hearing loss (moderate and severe deafness) is also called 1. It is also difficult to listen to loud talk, with an average hearing threshold of 56-70 decibels.
Severe hearing loss (severe deafness), also known as second-degree deafness, can only hear loud shouts in the ears, with an average hearing threshold of 7 1-90 decibels.
Extremely severe hearing loss (extremely severe deafness), also known as 1 deafness, can hardly hear the sound, even can't hear the loud shouting in the ear clearly, and the average hearing threshold is above 90 decibels.
After hearing loss is detected, treatment is the primary problem. At present, there are mainly the following methods to treat deafness: for functional deafness, patients can suddenly heal themselves or recover quickly after various sound and image treatments; For mixed deafness, comprehensive treatment is adopted, mainly using hearing AIDS and drugs. Sensorineural deafness. There are many reasons for this deafness, and the following methods should be taken according to the inducement: First, medication should be adopted, and if necessary, drugs that can dilate blood vessels in the inner ear, drugs that reduce blood viscosity and dissolve small thrombi, vitamin B drugs, energy preparations, antibacterial, antiviral and steroid hormones can be selected; The second is surgical treatment, which uses surgical connection to interrupt the auditory structure; The third is to install hearing AIDS, which are suitable for deaf patients with otitis media and sensorineural deafness with partial hearing loss; Cochlear implant is also called cochlear implant or cochlear implant, and the cost of this treatment is high, at least about100000 yuan; Fourth, insist on listening and language training.
Since ears are so important in our life, how can we better protect them in our daily life? According to clinical research in recent years, deafness caused by otitis media is on the rise. Therefore, to protect ears, the first thing to do is to prevent otitis media. Specifically, there are two aspects: one is to prevent upper respiratory tract infection, which is one of the important causes of otitis media; Second, we must eliminate the bad habit of digging our ears to avoid hurting the external auditory canal and tympanic membrane and causing otitis media. The second thing to do is to prevent deafness caused by noise pollution. No matter adults or children, never set off firecrackers at close range, and avoid wearing headphones to listen to music for a long time, and try to avoid unexpected strong noise from reaching your ears; The third is to avoid using some drugs that cause deafness. The fourth is to go to a regular hospital for treatment under the guidance of a doctor when you are sick. In a word, to protect your ears, you must start from peacetime and start from overcoming bad living habits. Only in this way can you have a pair of healthy ears. Furthermore, it is necessary to remind deaf patients that they must be treated as soon as possible, symptomatic treatment, and treatment in an experienced hospital to avoid unnecessary losses to themselves and their families due to improper treatment.