Please find information here about some common problems that patients have with their ears or hearing. If you have further questions we are more than happy to assist.
There are several reasons why hearing loss may occur. It can be due to injury, disease/genetic disorders, or simply aging. Hearing loss is something that can build up over a period of time, gradually progressing into complete deafness.
Do you suspect that you have hearing loss? Well, even if you do, there is no way to come to a definite conclusion until you get yourself checked by a doctor.
But, before you do that, make sure you’re experiencing the following symptoms because, if you’re not, you may not really have a problem.
Common Symptoms to Look For
Find yourself asking people to repeat things? If yes, it could indicate an early sign of hearing loss. Similarly, you might also have trouble following conversations, especially if it involves more than two to three people. Now, all this can occur even if you’re just someone who has problems paying attention, but it’s still a good idea to talk to your doctor.
Apart from these issues, some of the other signs of possible hearing loss include:
• Difficulty hearing while conversing.
• Ringing in the ears.
• Difficulty hearing in noisy areas such as the street, restaurants, malls, or any location with large crowds.
• Perception of other people’s voices sounding muffled.
• Responding with vague or irrelevant statements to questions/discussions.
• Focusing on people’s lips and facial expressions to understand what they are saying.
What we’ve discussed so far only covers the symptoms that are relevant to social situations. There are other categories of symptoms for hearing loss that need to be considered as well.
To begin, we have emotional symptoms such as feeling stressed or anxious when having to strain yourself to hear things correctly. Do you get annoyed when you can’t hear someone and have to ask them to repeat themselves? Do you become nervous when you’re in a situation that entails listening and understanding and find yourself avoiding them as much as you can?
If your answer is yes to any of these questions, then it might be a good idea to get yourself checked.
Emotional symptoms apart, there are medical factors that need to be considered as well. For instance, a history of hearing loss in the family does indicate the possibility of hearing loss in future generations. So, if there have been cases of hearing loss in your family, it might be a good idea to visit a doctor.
Other than genetic factors, certain medications can also end up harming hearing functions. For instance, ototoxic drugs have been known to cause hearing loss as a side effect.
Pre-existing medical conditions have also been known to cause hearing loss. This includes conditions related to thyroid production, the heart, circulation, and glucose levels (diabetes). Finally, even repeated exposure to loud noises or one-time exposure to explosive noise can cause hearing loss.
Treating Hearing Loss
The exact treatment for your hearing loss problem depends on the level of hearing loss you have and the cause behind it. There are multiple treatments and your doctor is the only person who can suggest what’s best for you.
Contact Our Office
Treating hearing loss problems early can help avoid serious complications down the line. If you’re interested in learning more about the treatments available to you, contact our office to schedule your initial consultation.
A perforated eardrum can be a painful experience if not treated properly in time as advised by a trained professional. It is known more commonly in the medical profession as a tympanic membrane perforation. It is characterized by a tear in the thin tissue separating your ear canal from the eardrum or middle ear.
This can result in hearing loss. If your eardrum is perforated, the middle ear is susceptible to various infections or injuries that could become incurable.
Luckily, perforated eardrums take a few weeks to heal without treatment. In certain cases, ruptured eardrums need surgical repair to return to 100% function.
What Causes a Perforated Eardrum?
Perforated eardrums are commonly caused by:
Perforated Eardrum Symptoms to Look For
A few signs and symptoms of ruptured eardrums are:
Who is at Risk?
Since eardrum perforation occurs from middle ear infection, people vulnerable to middle ear infections are also at risk of developing this condition. The ones most likely to fall victim to eardrum perforation usually include young adults and children who have had middle ear infections at least once during infancy. In Australia, such cases occur a lot amongst the Aboriginal and Torres Strait.
What Can I Do to Avoid a Perforated Eardrum?
There are several things that you can do to avoid having a perforated eardrum. You should make sure to protect your ears during flights. If you have a cold or an allergy that causes ear congestion, it is perhaps best not to fly.
If you do not have much of a choice, make sure you keep your ears clear during take off and landing. This can be done by yawning, chewing gum, or through pressure-equalizing earplugs. You can also try the Valsalva maneuver – gently blow while pinching your nostrils and keeping your mouth shut.
You should also protect yourself from foreign objects and keep things from going too deep into your ears, especially when using things like q tips when you’re cleaning out your ears.
Middle ear infections should be treated quickly. Stay alert for signs and symptoms of middle ear infection, which include reduced hearing, nasal congestion, ear aches and fevers. Children who have middle ear infections usually rub or pull their ears. Seek medical advice from your doctor to avoid potential damage to their eardrums.
Make sure to guard against loud noises. You should wear earmuffs or earplugs to protect your ears from damage at the workplace or during outdoor activities if you know there will be loud noises nearby.
So while you may be an easy target for perforated eardrums, there are simple steps (and remedies) out there that could save you from long-term damage.
Perforated eardrums might occur in many different people at any point in time. The level of perforation – the crack or hole might depend on the actual cause and based on that, the suitable method of correction would be chosen. Myringoplasty has been found to be an effective way to address the problem of perforated eardrums.
Perforated eardrums can easily become severe and result in intense pain and discomfort. There are many warning signs to look out for as possible indicators of a problem associated with perforated eardrum. In most cases, there might be an injury that leads to perforated eardrums and in others, the cause might be an infection. When the eardrum is damaged, this might leave the inner ear canal exposed to outside pollutants and thus increases the possibility of further infections.
Myringoplasty as the Perfect Answer
A perforated eardrum might lead to hearing issues. There are milder cases as well which are known to resolve by themselves. The doctor would identify the severity of the condition and prescribe the right treatment plan.
For those cases where immediate correction is required, a Myringoplasty might be recommended. The surgery is done mostly for those cases where the hole
caused by the infection is large enough to cause secondary infections.
Understanding the Procedure
There are various ways in which the surgery is performed and the overlay and underlay techniques are the most common. Both involve giving the patient general anesthesia. For rare cases where the problem is benign, a local anesthetic might be given.
The surgery also requires a graft of the patient’s skin in order to fill up the damaged area in the eardrum. The graft would then be processed in order to prepare it to be planted in the area being corrected.
The names underlay and overlay indicate the placement of the graft on the eardrum. In the underlay method the graft is placed on the inner surface and in the overlay method, the graft would simply be placed on the outside of the eardrum. The size of the incision and the position varies based on the chosen technique.
The real benefit of getting myringoplasty done is the reduction of ear infections. That is applicable for those patients who have persistent events of eardrum infections and damage leading to the infections in the inner ear which might even be accompanied by the discharge of fluid from the ears.
The surgery has become quite common now and the success rate has drastically increased. With the advancements in healthcare technology, correcting perforated ears is a safe and reliable treatment. After the treatment is completed, you will be given a few instructions to follow to ensure optimal health. Following this instructions will help improve your rate of recovery and your overall results.
Placing the graft in the designated area is essential for providing support. The graft will stay in place and slowly grow to naturally fill up the void caused by the infections or injuries. Given that the patient’s own tissues are used, there is little to no risk of the graft being rejected.
Contact Our Office to learn more about the Myringoplasty surgery.
A great deal of people suffer from a condition known as tinnitus. This condition can cause a person to hear a hissing, buzzing, ringing, or any other sound in one or both of their ears, even when there is no sound being produced externally.
Tinnitus can be a terrible ailment to suffer from and deal with on a daily basis, but luckily there have been many advances in the field of tinnitus treatments and research. There are many new kinds of therapies and treatments available to help treat tinnitus effectively and give those who suffer from it, the relief they deserve.
What Is TRT Treatment And How Does It Help In Curing Tinnitus?
TRT stands for tinnitus retraining therapy and helps the patient cope with his tinnitus on two levels – a conscious and subconscious level. It has helped treat a lot of people and has cured their tinnitus. The therapy utilizes a special technique to help patients get over their symptoms.
Suppose it starts to rain and you see it splashing against the window and hear the sound of it falling on the roof. You notice it at first and listen to it for some time, after which you tell your mind to focus on something else. The splashing sound of the rain you notice at first, falls from your attention and overtime, it will become unnoticed and out of your mind.
How Does The TRT Treatment Work?
TRT treatment requires the patient to be in close contact and cooperation with hearing professionals and ENT doctors. The therapy is used after detecting the exact source of the tinnitus and the aim of the therapy is to teach the brain to completely ignore the buzzing, ringing, or hissing sound in the ears. This form of therapy uses three very significant therapeutic steps. They are as follows:
The end result of the TRT treatment is the complete habituation of the tinnitus noise – to make the patient get used to the noise completely and not let it bother them. Of course, this therapy is still new and in the developing stages and will take some time to be perfected. It is also up to the patient to accept the treatment with an open mind and allow it to work on him.
Suffering from tinnitus can adversely affect your day-to-day activities. If it has become a problem for you, contact our office.
Feel free to contact the clinic to arrange a full diagnostic hearing assessment with one of our audiologists.
Dee Why Grand Commercial Tower
Level 2, Suite 4205
834 Pittwater Road
Dee Why, NSW, 2099
Office opening hours are between 8:30am to 4:30pm
Please call to make an appointment.
Office opening hours are between 8:30am to 4:30pm
Please call to make an appointment.