Southern California Ear, Nose & Throat Southern California Ear, Nose & Throat
Otolaryngologist is the medical term for an ear, nose, and throat (ENT) specialist. This type of specialist treats many conditions of the ear including hearing impairment, infections, disorders affecting balance, tinnitus (ringing in the ears), and pain. Let’s learn more about when to see Southern California Ear, Nose & Throat for ear pain.
Hearing is one of our five valuable senses and if suddenly you couldn’t hear sounds or voices clearly, you would obviously be upset. You notice others with hearing aids and now you wonder if that will be you soon. Let’s investigate why you might be experiencing muffled hearing.
During this time of year it can be difficult to distinguish between having just a cold or seasonal allergies. With the fears of COVID-19, this dilemma becomes even more important, and can be quite frightening with the wrong information. Let’s unpack the symptoms of just a cold, seasonal allergies or COVID-19, and when to be concerned. Continue reading “Just A Cold, Seasonal Allergies, Or COVID-19?”
Have you ever wondered what makes hearing work? It’s actually quite a complicated process involving several different kinds of body parts. Here’s a quick description of how they all work together so that you can hear what’s going on around you.
The ear has three main parts (see Figure 1):
Figure 1. Anatomy of the ear
As you can see in Figure 1, the outer ear opens into the ear canal. The eardrum (tympanum) separates the ear canal from the middle ear. The middle ear contains three small bones that help amplify the sound and transfer it to the inner ear. These three bones (ossicles), are the malleus, the incus, and the stapes. They are also referred to as the hammer, the anvil, and the stirrup because of their shapes.
The inner ear contains the cochlea, which changes sound into neurological signals, and the cochlear nerve, which takes sound to the brain.
Here’s how it all works together (see Figure 2).
Figure 2. How sound waves move through the ear
It all seems like something you would see in a cartoon, but it works. And it works very well. But an interruption of the normal process at any stage along the way can interfere with your ability to hear properly. That’s why it’s important to take care of your ears and seek professional help if you think there is a problem. In most cases, the sooner you recognize a problem, the more likely it can be resolved.
The ear is a delicate and intricate system that includes the skin of the ear canal and the eardrum. Most of the time, our ears take care of themselves, and common efforts to keep the ears clean may actually damage our ability to hear. So special care should be given to protect this part of our bodies. The most important thing you can do is to never stick a Q-Tip or any other object in your ears.
Hearing loss is the most common birth disorder among American children. Approximately 3 out of 1,000 children in the United States are born deaf or hard-of-hearing. This is important because studies have shown that early correction of hearing loss is crucial to the development of speech, language, cognitive, and psychosocial abilities. Treatment is most successful if hearing loss is identified within the first few months of life. Unfortunately, 25% of children born with serious hearing loss are not diagnosed until they are 14 months old. Continue reading “Hearing Screening for Children”