You are using an outdated browser. For a faster, safer browsing experience, upgrade for free today.

Loading...

Services

Ears & Hearing

Conditions that impair ear function can be as minor as wax buildup or as serious as congenital deafness. Many medical conditions can affect your hearing health. Our physicians help to evaluate and treat these problems. Treatment of these and other hearing losses often lead to improved or restored hearing. If left undiagnosed and untreated, some conditions may lead to irreversible hearing impairment or deafness. If you suspect that you or your loved one has a problem with their hearing, ensure optimal hearing healthcare by scheduling an appointment.

Some Common Conditions:
Description

Cholesteatomas begin as a build-up of ear wax and skin, which causes either a lump on the eardrum or an eardrum retraction pocket. Over time, the skin collects and eventually causes problems like infection, drainage, and hearing loss. The skin may take a long time to accumulate and can spread to the area behind the eardrum (the middle ear space) or to the bone behind the ear, called the mastoid bone.

Symptoms
  • Hearing loss
  • Ear drainage
  • Recurrent ear infections
  • Sensation of ear fullness
  • Dizziness
  • Facial muscle weakness
  • Ear ache
Treatments

Cholesteatoma can be managed in a variety of ways, but definitive removal of the skin or cyst typically requires surgical intervention. Before surgery, your ENT specialist may need to carefully clean your ear and prescribe medications to help stop the drainage. These medications (oral antibiotics) may be taken by mouth, applied directly to the ear (topical antibiotics), or both. It is advised that you keep the ear dry while treating these infections.

Description

Ménière’s disease (also called idiopathic endolymphatic hydrops) is one of the most common causes of dizziness originating in the inner ear. In most cases only one ear (unilateral) is involved, but both ears (bilateral) may be affected. Ménière’s disease typically affects people between the ages of 40- and 60-years-old and can impact anyone.

Symptoms
  • Dizziness or vertigo
  • Hearing loss
  • Ringing or buzzing sound
  • Feeling of fullness in affected ear
Treatments

Although there is no cure for Ménière’s disease, the attacks of vertigo can be controlled in nearly all cases. Treatment options include: a low salt diet and a diuretic, anti-vertigo medications, intratympanic injection with either dexamethasone or gentamicin, or surgery.

Description

Labyrinthitis is a disorder associated with inflammation of the inner ear. The labyrinth is a fluid-filled compartment that consists of the cochlea and the vestibular organs. The cochlea is the hearing organ and the vestibular organs are responsible for balance and spatial orientation.

Symptoms
  • Hearing loss in high frequency range
  • Difficulty understanding speech
  • Ringing or buzzing sound
  • Imbalance and unsteadiness
  • Vertigo while still
  • Involuntary twitching of the eyeball
  • Nausea and vomiting
Treatments

Treating most cases of labyrinthitis includes observation, bed rest, and hydration. Steroids, such as prednisone, are typically prescribed to minimize inner ear inflammation. In some cases, steroids may be injected through the eardrum into the middle ear space. Antivirals may also be prescribed. Severe nausea and vomiting may be treated with anti-nausea medications. Vertigo may be treated with antihistamines or sedatives.

Description

Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) happens when there is damage to tiny hair cells in the cochlear and/or the auditory nerve. In children, the most common causes of SNHL include inner ear abnormalities, genetic variations, jaundice, and viral infection from the mother during pregnancy. In adults, SNHL is most commonly caused by aging, exposure to loud noises, head trauma, or other conditions.

Symptoms
  • Muffled hearing
  • Difficulty understanding speech
  • Sudden or steady loss of hearing
  • Stuffy sensation in the ear
  • Ringing in the ear
  • Dizziness
Treatments

The treatment for hearing loss depends on the cause. A critical part of the evaluation will be a hearing test) performed by an audiologist to determine the severity of your hearing loss, as well as whether it is conductive, sensorineural, or a combination of both. Treatment options can include: Continuing observation with repeated hearing tests, medical therapy—corticosteroids, diuretics, low-sodium diet, hearing aids, surgery.

Description

Hyperacusis, or sensitive hearing, describes a problem in the way the brain’s central auditory processing center perceives noise, often leading to pain and discomfort. People with hyperacusis have a hard time tolerating sounds that are typically not loud to others, such as noise from running water, traffic or riding in a car, walking on leaves, shuffling papers, running the dishwasher or other machines, and more. Although all sounds may be perceived as too loud, high frequency sounds may be particularly troublesome.

Symptoms
  • Sensitivity to everyday sounds
  • Difficulty tolerating normal situations
  • Isolation
  • Pain / physical discomfort with sound
Treatments

There are no specific surgical or medical treatments to correct hyperacusis. However, sound therapy may be used to retrain the auditory processing center of the brain to accept everyday sounds. Your doctor may have you wear a noise-generating device on the affected ear, or both ears. The device produces a gentle, static-like sound (white noise) that is barely audible. Sound therapy can take up to 12 months to complete, and often improves sound tolerance.

Description

Otosclerosis describes a condition of abnormal bone growth around one of the three small bones in the middle ear space called the stapes. When bone around the stapes hardens, the bone cannot move freely, which limits the ability to properly transmit sound. This results in hearing loss; the less movement of the bone, the greater the degree of hearing loss.

Symptoms
  • Progressive hearing loss
  • Difficulty hearing low-pitched sounds
  • Ringing, roaring, buzzing, in ears
Treatments

The main options for otosclerosis include observation with repeated hearing tests, a hearing aid(s), or surgery. Observation is recommended only for mild hearing loss. Some medicines such as sodium fluoride or bisphosphonate supplements have been reported to limit the worsening of otosclerosis, but there is no definitive evidence of preventing its progression.

Description

Earache, or pain in the ear, is common and can occur in both children and adults. Earaches can be due to a problem with the ear or structures close to the ear. The pain may be dull, sharp, or burning and can occur in one or both ears. It may be constant or come and go.

Symptoms
  • Hearing problems
  • Pulling or scratching the ear
  • Crying or irritability
  • Ear drainage
  • Fever
  • Pain
  • Full sensation in the ear
  • Dizziness or loss of balance
  • Nausea, vomiting
Treatments

Often, antibiotics to fight the infection will make your earache go away rapidly, but the infection may need more time to clear up. Other medications that your doctor may prescribe include an antihistamine, a decongestant, or both. Sometimes the doctor may recommend a medication to reduce fever and/or pain. Special ear drops can also help ease the pain. Children who experience multiple episodes of acute otitis media or chronic otitis media that lasts for more than three months, may require the insertion of pressure-equalization (PE) tubes.

Description

Swimmer’s ear (also called acute otitis externa) is a painful condition that affects the outer ear and ear canal that is caused by infection, inflammation, or irritation. This often occurs after water gets trapped in the ear, especially if the water has bacteria or fungal organisms in it. Because this condition commonly affects swimmers, it is known as swimmer’s ear.

Symptoms
  • Itching inside the ear
  • Inner ear pain
  • Sensation that the ear is blocked
  • Drainage from the ear
  • Fever
  • Decreased hearing
  • Intense pain that spreads to the neck
  • Swollen lymph nodes around the ear
  • Redness or swelling around the ear
Treatments

Treatment for the early stages of swimmer’s ear includes careful cleaning of the ear canal and use of eardrops that inhibit bacterial or fungal growth and reduce inflammation. Mildly acidic solutions containing boric or acetic acid are often effective for early infections.

Description

Tinnitus is the sensation of ringing in the ears, which is the perception of sound without an external source being present. About one in five people with tinnitus have bothersome tinnitus, which negatively affects their quality of life and/or functional health. Tinnitus may be an intermittent or continuous sound in one or both ears. Its pitch can go from a low roar to a high squeal or whine, or it can have many sounds.

Symptoms
  • Constant ringing in ears (high or low)
  • Intermittent or constant roaring in ears
  • Pulsation or beating noises in ears
Treatments

Because tinnitus is relatively common and not always worrisome, not all patients need an evaluation. If your ENT specialist finds a specific cause for your tinnitus, they may be able to offer specific treatment to eliminate the noise. This may include removing wax or hair from your ear canal, treating middle ear fluid, treating arthritis in the jaw joint, etc. For many patients who have experienced tinnitus for less than six months, its natural course is to improve over time, and most people do not go on to have persistent, bothersome tinnitus.

Contact us
Newsletter

Enter your email address to get the latest news, updates, and blog posts.