Hearing Loss Today Around the World
Estimates vary, but it is safe to assume that at least 10% of the world’s population lives with some degree of disabling hearing loss. Considered another way, there are no less than 700 million people alive today who are deaf to some degree or other.
This includes the very small percentage of people born with congenital hearing loss and the much greater majority of people whose hearing loss came on gradually. This includes the very small percentage of people who have conductive hearing loss, meaning some form or another of physical impairment that literally prevents sound from reaching their inner ears.
And this includes the much greater majority of people who have sensorineural hearing loss, meaning that the nerve receptors in their inner ear have been damaged in some way that prevents them from receiving or transmitting sound accurately. This includes those who live with mild hearing loss and may not even consciously recognize that they are reading lips and those whose entire lives are organized around their disability, who communicate with sign language or wear their hearing aids diligently.
There are so many common factors that we all live with that can cause hearing loss, it is no wonder that the ratio of the population with hearing loss increases steadily with age. In fact, among people aged 75 and above, more than half have hearing loss. Given how prevalent hearing loss is, we have no reason to believe that things have not always been this way.
Sign Language Throughout History
In 1550 B.C. in Ancient Egypt we find the earliest historical reference to hearing loss in the Ebers Papyrus, which recommends injecting olive oil, red lead, ant eggs, bat wings and goat urine into the ears to improve an “Ear-That-Hears-Badly.” It further recommends injecting olive oil to cope with earwax buildup. And promotes kindness and patience toward the disabled, including those with trouble hearing.
Aristotle and Plate in Ancient Greece were less tolerant. Around 350 BC they believed that intelligence was intrinsically linked to one’s ability to converse, and therefore those with difficulty hearing were doomed to limited reasoning skills. In fact, from that time onwards, this attitude prevailed and deaf people were commonly not afforded full civil liberties and rights to self-determination.
Plato was also the first to make reference to sign language, but it was not until monks in Burgundy adopted it to keep their strict vows of silence in the 10th century that any specifics of sign language were ever recorded. Sign language caught on among monks in the middle ages so much so that it eventually led to the creation of the first sign language alphabet by Ponce de Leon in the 16th century.
Hearing Aids Throughout History
The first recorded evidence of anything resembling a hearing aid in its functioning dates back to Ancient Rome. Hadrianus cupped his hands behind his ears to help him hear. But it is not until 1588 that Giambattista della Porta conceptualized big horns shaped in the manner of animals that are known to have sharp hearing, loosely in the style of telescopes for the ears. But it was not until 1610 that Galileo’s pupil Paolo Aproino finally put the concept to the test, crafting the first ear trumpets, which would eventually be in common use within a century.
And Prehistory?
Of course one of the ways that we attach to our common humanity most deeply is paradoxically when we consider the expansive mysteries of just how much we do not know about where we come from when we try to look back to before the invention of written language. But of course we can only assume that hearing loss dates back as distantly as humans ourselves do.
The mummy of Pum II has a perforated ear drum. Multiple Neanderthal skeletons found in Iraq show evidence that they would have suffered from hearing loss 10,000 years ago and 35-45,000 years ago.
In Conclusion
Hearing loss is permanent and irreversible. Its consequences compound when it is left untreated, but with proper care and upkeep, it is indeed very manageable. As we have seen in this brief overview, it is indeed a common element of our shared human experience. It has always been there to contend with. Luckily for us, our treatments today make it more manageable than ever before. Contact us today!