EARLY DETECTION, KEY TO TREATING HEARING LOSS

Is your child suffering from hearing loss? Are you worried about your child’s future?  Do you think there is no cure? Don’t worry! There is good news. Hearing loss can be cured, if detected early enough.

Almost all children born deaf can overcome hearing loss if the problem is detected at an early age, an expert claimed.

Children grow up to be permanently deaf because parents delay taking them for treatment, said ENT Specialist and Royal Bahrain Hospital Consultant Dr. Shalabh Sharma.

In an Interview with DT News at Royal Bahrain Hospital Premises in Salmania, Dr. Sharma said even a profoundly deaf baby, if taken for treatment at an early age, could be treated with what is called ‘cochlear implants’, which would alleviate the deafness.

“Profoundly deaf children are those who are considered born deaf. I did many implants, for instance, in India alone, I did over 800 implants,” Dr. Sharma, who has been in this field for the past 13 years, said.

“If anyone notices that their child has hearing loss, they need to get a complete check up done,” he advised, adding, “If the child is profoundly deaf, he or she will have 80 decibels to 90 decibels or even a 100 decibels hearing loss.”

The implant can work wonders, he said. “If your child receives implant at the age of 1 to 2, the child will be able to go to a normal school by the time he/she is 5 or 6 years of age. Not just that, they will be able to perform just as other children,” he assured.

“Implants done before 2 years give the best result, but it can be done till 7 years of age. The reason for this is when the child is born, brain is able to adapt to new sensations, new sounds and develop something out of it. The brain is plastic and you can mould it. After 7 or 8 years, the plasticity power reduces,” he explained.

He said cases where deafness is incurable was rare.

“Inserting an implant, when the cochlear or the hearing nerves are not developed, would not work. But that is rare, it happens only in one in 300 cases,” he stated.

Meanwhile, he said the awareness in Bahrain was not very high.

“Yesterday, I saw a family who was still considering weather to give their 10-year-old child implants or not,” he added.