In case you missed it, the second episode of our brand-new show Coffee & Audiology is now live.
Dan Hewson talked about all things hearing-related, including sudden hearing loss, the different manufacturers of hearing aids, and the sticky-like substance that is produced inside your ears.
What is Coffee & Audiology?
You know how boring it can get watching the same TV programs over and over again, so why not educate yourself by watching an easily digestible program by one of Arizona’s leading practitioners?
With so much conflicting information available on the internet, Coffee and Audiology aims to challenge the myths and misconceptions about hearing loss, ensuring you have a clearer understanding of hearing.
It brings together Dan’s passion for coffee, which of course is AC/Decaf, and a fun monthly episode, including the three most commonly asked questions asked by you.
Snuggled up with a cup of coffee + watching the charismatic Dan Hewson = What more could you want?
In this episode, the three questions asked were:
Question #1 – I was treated for an ear infection when my hearing loss was due to something else – what now?
Question #2 – I have tried all the hearing aid manufacturers, and I still can’t hear. Is there any hope?
Question #3 – How do I take care of earwax?
== Prefer to Read Rather Than Watch? Below is the Transcript for You ==
Question Number One:
“I recently woke up and lost all of my hearing in the right ear. I thought it was an ear infection and went to urgent care, and they treated it like an infection.
“I learned later that this was not the case, and I lost all of my hearing. What should I have done differently? And what do I do now? I cannot hear out of this ear.”
Having worked in the nose and throat practice for all the years that I have, I cannot tell you how many times I’ve come across this.
I always recommend patients get to an audiologist if possible. The sooner you treat it, the better. If we find that there’s something wrong with the ear, most of the time, the patient loses their hearing.
When it’s a sudden hearing loss like that, generally speaking, you have between 24-72 hours, so you must go to an audiologist as soon as possible.
Time is of the essence because if we wait a lot longer than that, unfortunately, the likelihood of restoring your hearing to where it was is dramatically reduced.
The second part of this question is, “I cannot hear out of this ear; what do I do?”
So, there are two major scenarios.
Get a C-R-O-S test, contralateral routing of the signal, which essentially allows us to send, signals back and forth between the dead ear and the good ear.
It allows us to transmit information with a microphone on this side to hear from the other side.
Now the flip side of it, a BiCROS, which is the same setup except the microphone on the side with no hearing, picks up sound and sends it to the side with some hearing.
The BiCROS allows you to have amplification to fix the left ear for whatever hearing loss may be there and give that directionality and localization coming from the bad ear.
Question Number Two:
“I have worn hearing aids for 20 years and have tried different hearing aids, and I am so frustrated, as I have worn Phonak, Audicon, Widex, and Costco hearing aids. And I am still not hearing well. Is there any hope?”
So, it’s important to remember that hearing aids do a lot more than make things louder and softer. Hearing loss is a medical condition, and hearing aids treat it.
When we do the programming, we use sound field testing to help us really verify your hearing.
We also use a test called QuickSIN, a test that is very seldom used in our industry and allows us to verify how well that person can hear in background noise.
It doesn’t matter where you get hearing aids from, but as long as those best practices are done regarding doing the verification testing. It’s very important to understand what got us here in the first place.
We just have to work together to figure out what you need to help your problem.
Question Number Three:
“I always develop a lot of wax in my ears and have tried flushing them out and get different gadgets to clean my ears with. And I still have difficulties. What would you recommend is the best way to take care of the wax?”
So, I started cleaning out ears when I was working in an ear, nose & throat practice probably about 15 years ago. And I would see so many people try so many different things.
Some people use Q-tips in their ears, which is extremely dangerous.
It can cause serious injuries such as perforation of the eardrum and bleeding. It’s important to know that some of the skin inside of your ear canal is the most sensitive skin in your body.
What can I do to get rid of it?
- Use five drops of olive oil in each ear.
- Let it sit there for five minutes.
- Put a cotton ball in one ear, flip over, and do the other side for five minutes. Five drops and leave it in there.
- And the next morning, you can flush it out.
Now, remember, as I say, a disclaimer on this is that if you’ve had a history of ear infections or perforations or any medical issues with your ears, I wouldn’t do this.
And if that’s the case, I would go see an ear, nose & throat doctor or an audiologist trained in doing this.
And there you have it – you’re all caught up!
