Hearing loss has a track record for showing itself slowly. It can be difficult to detect the symptoms because of this. It’s nothing to worry about, you simply need the volume on the TV a little louder, no big deal, right? That’s usually the situation, yes, but not always. It turns out hearing loss can also occur suddenly and without much warning.
It can be rather alarming when the state of your health abruptly changes. For instance, if your hair falls out a little bit at a time, it’s no big deal, you’re just going bald! But you would likely want to schedule an appointment with your doctor if you woke up one morning and all your hair had fallen out.
When you suddenly develop hearing loss, it’s the same thing. There are some very good reasons why acting quickly is a smart plan!
Sudden hearing loss – what is it?
Sudden hearing loss (sometimes known as sudden deafness or sudden sensorineural hearing loss, or simply SSHL for short) is not typically as prevalent as the longer-term kind of hearing loss most people experience. But sudden hearing loss is not exactly rare, either. Each year, 1 in 5000 people experience SSHL.
Here are some symptoms of sudden hearing loss:
- Some individuals may also experience a feeling of fullness in the ear. Or, in some instances, a ringing or buzzing in the ear.
- The loss of 30dB or greater with regards to your hearing. The outside world sounds 30dB quieter than when you had healthy hearing. You won’t be capable of measuring this by yourself, it’s something we will diagnose. However, it will be apparent.
- As the name suggests, sudden deafness usually occurs rapidly. This typically means that sudden hearing loss develops over a matter of hours or days. As a matter of fact, most people wake up in the morning questioning what’s wrong with their ears! Or, they may take a phone call and wonder why they can’t hear anything on the other end.
- Sudden hearing loss will affect just one ear in 9 of 10 cases. That said, it is possible for SSHL to affect both ears.
- Some people hear a loud “pop” before their hearing begins to fade. But this is not always the case. It’s possible to experience SSHL without hearing this pop.
So, is sudden hearing loss permanent? Well, about half of everyone who experiences SSHL will recover within a couple of weeks. However, it’s relevant to note that one key to success is rapid treatment. So you will need to come see us for treatment right away. After you first detect the symptoms, you should wait no longer than 72 hours.
The best thing you can do, in most situations, is to treat SSHL as a medical emergency. Your chances of sudden hearing loss becoming permanent increases the longer you wait.
What’s the cause of sudden hearing loss?
Some of the top causes of sudden hearing loss include the following:
- Autoimmune disease: In some situations, your immune system starts to believe that your inner ear is a threat. This type of autoimmune disease can easily lead to SSHL.
- Illnesses: Diseases such as mumps, measles, meningitis, and multiple sclerosis have all been known to trigger SSHL, for significantly different reasons. So if a disease has a vaccine, it’s a good plan to get immunized.
- Being continuously exposed to loud music or other loud noise: For most individuals, loud sound will cause a progressive decline in hearing. But there might be some circumstances where that hearing loss will happen abruptly.
- Head trauma: The communication between your ears and your brain can be interrupted by a traumatic brain injury.
- Reaction to pain medication: Too much use of opioid-related drugs and pain medication can increase your risk of experiencing sudden hearing loss.
- Genetic predisposition: In some cases, a greater risk of sudden deafness can be passed along from parents to children.
- A reaction to drugs: Common medications like aspirin are included in this list. This list can also include some antibiotics, like streptomycin and gentamicin, and other common medicines including cisplatin and quinine.
- Problems with your blood flow: Things like blocked cochlear arteries and high platelet counts are included in this category.
For a portion of patients, knowing what type of sudden hearing loss you’re dealing with will help us create a more effective treatment. But at times it doesn’t work that way. Knowing the precise cause isn’t always necessary for effective treatment because lots of types of SSHL have similar treatment methods.
What should you do if you have sudden hearing loss?
So, if you wake up one morning and suddenly discover you can’t hear anything, what’s the best course of action? There are some things that you should do as soon as possible. First of all, you shouldn’t just wait for it to go away. That won’t work very well. You should wait no longer than 72 hours to get treatment. It’s best to schedule an appointment with us immediately. We’ll be in the best position to help you determine what’s wrong and how to address it.
While at our office, you will probably take an audiogram to identify the degree of hearing loss you’re dealing with (this is a totally non-invasive test where you put on some headphones and raise your hand when you hear a beep). We can make sure you don’t have a blockage or a conductive problem.
The first round of treatment will usually include steroids. An injection of these steroids directly into the ear is sometimes necessary. For others, pills might be capable of generating the desired results. SSHL of numerous root causes (or no known cause) can be successfully treated with steroids. You might need to use a medication to reduce your immune response if your SSHL is due to an autoimmune disease.
Have you or somebody you know suddenly lost hearing? Contact us today to schedule a hearing evaluation.
