The Danger Of Sudden Hearing Loss

Typically people who suffer from hearing loss are either born with the condition or develop it over time, but there is another kind of hearing loss that is destructive and abrupt. Sudden sensorieneural hearing loss (SSHL) is an unexpected loss of most or all hearing in one or both ears occurring within 3 days or less. Sudden hearing loss is considered an emergency, but those experiencing it often don’t understand they need to immediately seek medical help. The tendency with sudden hearing loss is to wait and see if it clears up.. But waiting to treat the sudden inner ear problem often results in permanent hearing loss. SSHL is due to sudden swelling of the inner ear nerve endings that are inside the skull. There are very few ways for a person to know if they are suffering from this sudden, possibly permanent, hearing loss instead or the more common reasons such as wax plugging the outer ear or build up of fluid behind the ear drum.  There is one fairly simple and totally free way for a person to determine the cause of sudden loss of hearing in one ear — humming. When you hum the sound goes directly through the bone of your skull into your inner ear. If the inner ear is damaged the humming is not heard on that side. But if the ear is plugged with wax or fluid behind the drum, the humming will be LOUDER in that ear. (You can prove this yourself by humming then plugging one ear with your finger. The sound of the hum should be louder on that side). So if you hum and it sounds louder in your “bad” ear, it is usually not an emergency. Many people afflicted with sudden hearing loss never realize there is a limited amount of time to seek help. It’s best for a person to seek help within 24-48 hours to regain full hearing. However, there are examples of patients treated a few weeks after the incident regaining partial to full hearing, so even if you have passed that golden hour, get to a doctor. My office staff includes an experienced Audiologist who can make the diagnosis with 10 minutes of testing. While this problem of SSHL is considered to be rare, I probably see 5-10 people a month with it, and I have been fortunate enough to get most of them better.