The Ear and Hearing Loss The ear is a complex sound system. It
takes a lot of special components to hear! Sound is a vibration
which travels in a wave through the air. When the sound waves
enter the ear, they go through the ear’s three sections: the
outer, middle and inner ear. Hearing occurs when the sound waves
enter your ear canal. The sound waves hit the eardrum, which
moves the middle ear bones, and in turn transfers the energy to
the hair cells in the inner ear. These hair cells send pitch-
specific information to the brain to process and attach meaning
to the sound. Hearing loss happens when sound cannot travel
through these sections to the brain. Hearing loss typically
comes on gradually, often over the course of years or even
decades. There are some forms which come on suddenly. Signs of a
hearing loss include: - Turning the volume up louder than others
- Asking people to repeat - Feeling as if people around you
mumble - Having difficulty in background noise - Experiencing
ringing in the ears - Being