Medical information for hard of hearing, late-deafened, oral deaf, and other people with hearing loss (original) (raw)
This portion of our website focuses on the medical aspects of hearing loss.
Psychological and Psychosocial Implications of Hearing Loss
Here’s a good introduction to deafness, including types, causes, and treatment.
Ever wonder why hearing aids aren’t covered by medical insurance? Want to know what’s being done about that?
One of the medical aspects that is becoming increasingly important is an increased understanding of the causes of hearing loss.
Another medical area that’s demanding attention lately are potential hearing loss cures.
One of the diseases most commonly associated with hearing loss is Meniere’s Disease.
People with hearing loss often suffer from a condition called tinnitus.
Audiology is the art of treating hearing loss, frequently through the application of hearing aids.
Recruitment refers to a condition in which sound which is only slightly louder than a very comfortable sound is perceived as painful. It’s a common condition among people with hearing loss.
One of the really positive trends in medical aspects of hearing loss is the movement to provide universal newborn hearing screening. Checking all infants before they leave the hospital helps to ensure early identification and treatment.
October 2002 – Here are some great tips on ear care and injury prevention
August 2003 – If you’re on Medicare, you probably know that you can’t just head over to your local audiologist and expect Medicare to cover it; you need a referral from your doctor first. A recent bill is attempting to change that.
January 2004 – Scientists have produced a new, super thin optical fiber that may soon allow doctors to examine the inner ear!
January 2005 – There’s a new organization called Hearing Health Network (HHN) that’s interested in your hearing health. It’s a collaboration between family doctors and hearing health professionals. Read all about it here!
October 2005 – Not hearing well is a certainly a difficult issue to deal with. It turns out that seniors may have additional communications problems beyond those caused directly by hearing loss.
January 2006 – Do you think a computer-based diagnosis tool would help doctors identify and treat hearing disorders? If so, you’ll be interested in the work being done in Australia.
February 2006 – Do the nurses that serve you have hearing loss?
February 2006 – Ear Candling: A Foolproof Method or Proof of Foolish Methods?
February 2006 – Researchers have discovered that the presence of a particular hormone is related how well people retain their hearing as they age.
February 2006 – Deafness Research UK has recently awarded a prize to a Cambridge University student for her work to develop an objective method to measure frequency regions with little or no hearing response. Here’s the press release.
February 2006 – New technology promises better hearing loss diagnosis
March 2006 – Ear infection vaccine developed
March 2006 – Why is the cochlea shaped the way it is?
March 2006 – Kids With "Hearing Problems" May Suffer From CAPD
April 2006 – "Blackberry Thumb" Strikes
May 2006 – Artificial stapes was born in Memphis 50 years ago
May 2006 – Guidelines for Care, Diagnosis of Swimmer’s Ear
May 2006 – Most vertigo cases related to hearing problems
May 2006 – Help for Sore, Irritated, Infected Ears/Ear Canals
July 2006 – Slime-Like Substance Blamed for Chronic Ear Infections
August 2006 – Researchers Investigate Link Between Hearing Loss and Osteoporosis
September 2006 – Vaccine Aims to Wipeout Ear, Sinus Infections
October 2006 – Going deaf and blind happens simultaneously in old age
October 2006 – Arthritis, Diabetes and Heart Disease: Connected to Sensory/Neural Hearing Loss?
March 2007 – How Your Brain Hears
April 2007 – Dangerous Decibels – A Virtual Exhibit
June 2007 – Hearing Loss: A Different Experience for Women and Men
June 2007 – Auditory Nerve Implant Next Big Hearing Loss Breakthrough?
July 2007 – Meningitis Immunization Recommended for All Adolescents
August 2007 – Otoacoustic Emissions: Reducing and Preventing Noise-Induced Hearing Loss
September 2007 – Lasting Neurological Processes Impacted by Mild Hearing Loss
December 2007 – Auditory Hallucinations or Musical Ear Syndrome
January 2008 – Many Kids Get Unnecessary Ear Tubes
January 2008 – Hearing Things: When Sounds Come Unbidden
September 2008 – New Hearing Scale Detects Hearing Loss in Elderly
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
House Bill Seeks to Provide Direct Audiology Access
Editor: If you’re on Medicare, you probably know that you can’t just head over to your local audiologist and expect Medicare to cover it; you need a referral from your doctor first.
That may soon change. Representative Jim Ryun (R-KS) and Representative Lois Capps (D-CA) just introduced legislation that would allow Medicare recipients to seek audiology services without a physician referral. Federal employees are already able to seek direct audiological care, and Medicaid is considering a similar measure.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fiber Optic Breakthrough for Hearing Health Care?
January 2004
I get lots of emails from people asking all sorts of questions about hearing loss. Often my answer is that we really know surprisingly little about it. We often don’t know the cause of a particular person’s hearing loss. We certainly don’t know why two people subjected to the same loud noise or the same medications can have drastically different responses – one suffering severe or profound hearing loss and the other seemingly unaffected.
One of the reasons that we know so little about the hearing of a particular individual is that we can’t examine a person’s inner ear while he’s alive; existing tools are just too large.
That may change soon! Scientists at Sydney Cochlear Implant Centre have succeeded in creating a tiny endoscope consisting of a single optical fiber that is just half a millimeter wide. The fiber is small enough to allow exploration of previously inaccessible parts of the body, including the inner ear. But don’t rush down to your ENT and demand an examination just yet – the optical image available using the new endoscope is still pretty crude. But the researchers who developed it are working on an improved version with much better optical qualities. It may soon be possible to see what’s going on in YOUR inner ear.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nurses with Hearing Loss
February 2006
Exact numbers of nurses with hearing loss remains elusive. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — Public Health Services (2004) estimates that 28 million people, in the United States , are deaf or hard of hearing. One can only speculate that the number of nurses with some degree of hearing loss mirror the general population. Coupled with this fact, is the reality that nurses are getting older and hearing loss is one of the issues many older people face. Additionally, each year more and more nursing students with hearing loss are being admitted to nursing education programs (Maheady, 2003). But there is good news for nurses with hearing loss. The following resources can help many nurses with hearing loss to continue to practice. Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Homing in on hearing problems
February 2006
Mimosa Acoustics has received FDA approval to market a device that can identify hearing problems related to the middle ear. But ironically, one of its greatest benefits may be ruling out severe hearing problems in newborn babies. Champaign-based Mimosa got word from the Food and Drug Administration on Feb. 10 that its wideband Middle Ear Power Analyzer had been approved for commercial use.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ear infection vaccine developed
March 2006
A vaccine which could help prevent ear infections in young children has been developed by Czech scientists. Also known as acute otitis media, the infections can be very painful and – very rarely – cause long term damage. The vaccine was effective against two bacteria – the streptococcus pneumoniae and haemophilus influenzae, the Lancet reported. But a UK ear expert said there concerns about vaccinating children against what was generally a mild infection. Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kids With "Hearing Problems" May Suffer From CAPD
March 2006
Specialist Dr. Larry Medwetsky said that more people are becoming aware of the possibility that a problem with the child’s behavior may be CAPD rather than ADHD. Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD) is often misunderstood because it can be confused with certain learning disabilities like ADHD. Kids with CAPD have normal hearing, but they can’t process information they hear in the same way as others do, because their ears and brain don’t fully coordinate. Think of it as a short from the ear to the brain. Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Artificial stapes was born in Memphis 50 years ago
May 2006
Shea has since performed the same ear surgery on more than 25,000 patients, while millions worldwide have also had their hearing restored with his invention, an artificial stapes bone. Shea is 81 today, and still performing the same procedure. In the mid-1950s surgeons were experimenting with a variety of materials to produce implants, but they all triggered an immune response and were rejected by the body. Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Most vertigo cases related to hearing problems
May 2006
Editor: If you know much about the anatomy of the inner ear, you know that physical structures that are crucial to hearing and balance are located right next to each other. So you may not be surprised to learn that hearing and balance disorders often appear together. Here’s a report on this phenomenon from Hear-It (http://www.press.hear-it.org/)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Three out of four cases of vertigo are related to hearing disorders.
It is estimated that 2 percent of the general population suffer from vertigo. Among those, 75 percent also suffer from hearing problems. This was the conclusion reached at the "Scientific Congress on Vertigo, Cholesteatoma and Otitis", held by Gaes and the Spanish Society of Otorhinolaryngology and Neck and Head Pathology.
People suffering from vertigo experience a sensation of movement that does not exist, and/or other frequently related symptoms such as hearing loss, buzzing in the ears, headaches, dizziness, vomiting and loss of balance.
Common among the elderly
The prevalence of vertigo is highest, as high as 30 percent, among old people. Among young adults, the prevalence is 2 percent, according to Dr. Gonzalo Corvera, specialist surgeon in otorhinnolaryngology and founder of the Mexican Society of Otology and Otoneurology.
A number of factors cause vertigo, among them disorders of the vestibular where the organ of equilibrium is located, infections in the middle and inner ear, trauma to the head, viruses, drugs and a lack of blood flow. "Due to the proximity of the vestibular to the cochlea in the inner ear, it is quite usual that hearing is affected," added Dr. Corvera.
Check the hearing
Vertigo cases represent 5 percent of all visits to general practitioners, according to Dr. Nicolás Pérez, of the Clinic University of Navarra. It is, therefore, recommended for vertigo sufferers to have their hearing tested, as 3 out of four cases of vertigo are related to hearing disorders.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Slime-Like Substance Blamed for Chronic Ear Infections
Bacterial biofilm resistant to antibiotics, study finds
July 2006
If your young child has an ear infection that won’t go away, he may be struggling with a slime-like substance in the middle ear that experts call bacterial "biofilm." This biofilm makes it harder for antibiotics to do their jobs, leading to long-lasting ailments. Bacteria appear to be hiding in this usually protective slimy film in kids with chronic middle ear infections, a new study found. The discovery isn’t going to lead to any new treatments right away, but they may eventually help doctors get a better handle on one of the plagues of childhood. Ear infections, in fact, are the most common illnesses that bring children to doctors. Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Researchers Investigate Link Between Hearing Loss and Osteoporosis
August 2006
Saint Louis University researchers are studying how osteoporosis, hearing loss, and dizziness may be related. The study hopes to enroll 300 to 400 women, who are affected by osteoporosis more often than men. Anthony Mikulec, chief of otologic and neurotologic surgery and assistant professor in the department of otolaryngology at Saint Louis University School of Medicine, has published research showing that patients with otosclerosis are more likely to have osteoporosis. In January, Mikulec and Kent Wehmeier, associate professor in the division of endocrinology at Saint Louis University School of Medicine, began to study the relationship between bone loss and specific kinds of hearing loss and dizziness in post-menopausal women. Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Vaccine Aims to Wipeout Ear, Sinus Infections
U.S. researchers said Tuesday that they are starting trials of a new vaccine aimed at wiping out childhood ear and sinus infections and many cases of bronchitis in adults. Unlike virtually all other vaccines on the market, this one will not be aimed at saving lives, but at preventing nuisance illnesses, the researchers said. "We are now in an era where we look to vaccines that make life better," said Dr. Michael Pichichero, a professor of microbiology, immunology, pediatrics, and medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center, who is leading the trial. Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Arthritis, Diabetes and Heart Disease: Connected to Sensory/Neural Hearing Loss?
October 2006
Arthritis, diabetes, and heart disease are chronic medical conditions affecting millions of people in the U.S. There is on-going evidence that each is connected to sensory/neural hearing loss, which also affects millions of Americans. Audiologists should be aware of these connections when taking patient histories and conducting interviews. This article will look at the latest evidence relating arthritis, diabetes, and heart disease to hearing loss. Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dangerous Decibels – A Virtual Exhibit
April 2007
Here’s a very cool site that uses interesting games and demos to teach us about hearing and hearing loss. It includes simulations of what various common sounds are like for a person with hearing loss, and LOTS of other stuff. The purpose of the site is to answer three important questions:
1. What are the sources of dangerous sounds?
2. What are the effects of listening to dangerous sounds?
3. How do I protect myself from dangerous sounds?
The Virtual Exhibit is based on the Dangerous Decibels exhibit at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland, Oregon. Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hearing Loss: A Different Experience for Women and Men
June 2007
There are disparities in high-frequency and low-frequency hearing patterns between men and women. . . . Aging women have better high-frequency hearing than men. But women in their sixties through their nineties lose low-frequency hearing at a faster rate than men, according to researchers from the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle. When it comes to communicating, "speech consonants are high frequency, so high-frequency loss causes difficulty in understanding words," said George Gates, M.D., a professor of otolaryngology and head and neck surgery at the University of Washington. Over the course of a lifetime, "men seem to get more noise exposure than women and thus have more high frequency loss," Gates said. Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meningitis Immunization Recommended for All Adolescents
July 2007
The National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) applauds and strongly supports new recommendations made yesterday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) to expand the meningococcal disease immunization recommendations to encompass a broad range of adolescents. The ACIP now recommends meningococcal vaccination for all adolescents 11-18 years of age. The vote to expand the CDC’s previous meningococcal immunization recommendations took place during the June 27 meeting of the ACIP in Atlanta, Ga. The decision was based upon the disease epidemiology data showing an increased risk for disease among adolescents and young adults 11-18 years of age and increased availability of the meningococcal conjugate vaccine. Meningococcal disease is the most common cause of bacterial meningitis in US toddlers, adolescents and young adults. Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Otoacoustic Emissions: Reducing and Preventing Noise-Induced Hearing Loss
August 2007
Hearing conservationists need effective schemes to determine whether their hearing-conservation programs (HCPs) are successful, determine whether new interventions are helpful, and establish which personnel in their care have an increased risk for noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). Currently, these goals cannot be achieved because the measure of success is also the measure of failure-by the time a hearing loss is recorded, personnel have already been damaged and the HCP has failed. Tests are needed that enable audiologists to catch hearing loss before it becomes clinically significant and-better still-stop a hearing loss from ever occurring. An otoacoustic emission (OAE) test may be the solution. Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lasting Neurological Processes Impacted by Mild Hearing Loss
September 2007
Mild-to-moderate forms of hearing loss can have a lasting impact on the auditory cortex, according to findings by researchers at New York University’s Center for Neural Science. The study, which is the first to show central effects of mild hearing loss, appeared in the August 31, 2023 edition of the Journal of Neuroscience. The study was authored by NYU scientists Han Xu, Vibhakar Kotak, and Dan Sanes, working in NYU’s Center for Neural Science. Previously, researchers had been unable to conclusively determine the neurological impact of mild forms of hearing loss, which occurs when the pathway by which sound reaches the cochlea is disrupted-such as is experienced with middle ear infections during childhood. The NYU study sought to address this question in an animal model by measuring the impact of conductive hearing loss without injury to the cochlea. Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Auditory Hallucinations or Musical Ear Syndrome
December 2007
Auditory hallucinations are defined as the perception of an auditory event such as voices or music in the absence of an external stimulus. Such hallucinations, especially the hearing of distinct, commanding voices, are often connected with psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia; however, musical hallucinations are usually non-psychiatric in nature and linked to conditions such as hearing loss, brain lesions, diseases such as epilepsy, injuries, drugs, and alcohol withdrawal. Once considered rare, auditory hallucinations, especially the perception of phantom music, are so common among persons with hearing loss that Neil G. Bauman, PhD, recommends the more neutral term "musical ear syndrome" or MES to refer to the condition.2 In his speaking engagements, up to 30 percent of his audiences will publicly admit to having heard "strange phantom voices, ethereal music or other spooky sounds that no one else hears. Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hearing Things: When Sounds Come Unbidden
January 2008
We are all, to some extent, human jukeboxes, able to program for pleasure and for reference. And while music sometimes sticks around longer than we would like – like a hit tune or an advertising jingle – for the most part we control what’s inside our heads. This story, however, describes what can happen when a person loses control. For some people, the music comes unbidden, sticks around, makes too much noise and won’t go away. Cheryl C., (not her real name) is a patient of the well-known author and neurologist Dr. Oliver Sacks. Her story appears in his new book Musicophilia. About five years ago, Cheryl was in bed reading when all of a sudden she heard a tremendous clamor. As Sacks tells it, "There were sirens, there were voices, there were bells, there was screaming, there was clanging." She jumped up, rushed to the window to see what could be creating such noise. But when she looked she saw nothing. "I suddenly realized that these horrendous noises were in my head," she says. Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
New Hearing Scale Detects Hearing Loss in Elderly
September 2008
A clinically effective hearing scale to detect hearing loss in elderly people is described in a study report in the September/October issue of the Annals of Family Medicine. "Despite the high prevalence of hearing impairment and the effectiveness of rehabilitation measures, family physicians do not normally make systematic use of hearing impairment screening tests or structured interviews for all older patients," write Jesús López-Torres Hidalgo, MD, from the University of Castilla-La Mancha in Albacete, Spain, and colleagues. "We wanted to design and validate the Hearing-Dependent Daily Activities (HDDA) Scale as a means of identifying the impact of hearing loss in older persons by measuring capacity to carry out hearing-dependent activities." . . . "The HDDA scale constitutes a clinically useful instrument for identifying the impact of hearing loss on daily life in the elderly, a condition frequently overlooked during routine medical check-ups," the study authors write. "This tool has acceptable psychometric properties and high internal consistency." Full Story