Because you’re so cool, you rocked out in the front row for the entire rock concert last night. It’s fun, although it’s not good for your ears which will be ringing when you get up the next morning. (That part’s less fun.)
But what if you awaken and can only hear out of one ear? Well, if that’s the situation, the rock concert might not be the culprit. Something else must be happening. And when you develop hearing loss in only one ear… you may feel a little alarmed!
Moreover, your general hearing might not be working properly. Your brain is accustomed to processing signals from two ears. So only getting signals from a single ear can be disorienting.
Why hearing loss in one ear leads to issues
Your ears basically work in concert (no pun intended) with each other. Just like having two forward facing eyes helps your depth perception and visual acuity, having two outward facing ears helps you hear more accurately. So the loss of hearing in one ear can wreak havoc. Among the most prevalent effects are the following:
- You can have trouble pinpointing the direction of sounds: Somebody calls your name, but you have no idea where they are! It’s exceedingly difficult to triangulate the direction of sound with only one ear working.
- It’s difficult to hear in loud places: With only one working ear, noisy settings like restaurants or event venues can abruptly become overwhelming. That’s because all that sound appears to be coming from every-which-direction randomly.
- You have trouble detecting volume: In the same way as you need both ears to triangulate direction, you sort of need both ears to figure out how loud something is. Think about it this way: You won’t be sure if a sound is distant or simply quiet if you don’t know where the sound is coming from.
- Your brain becomes exhausted: Your brain will become more exhausted faster if you can only hear from one ear. That’s because it’s failing to get the complete sound spectrum from just one ear so it’s working extra hard to compensate. This is especially true when hearing loss in one ear happens suddenly. This can make a lot of activities throughout your day-to-day life more taxing.
So what’s the cause of hearing loss in one ear?
Hearing professionals call muffled hearing in one ear “unilateral hearing loss” or “single-sided hearing loss.” Single sided hearing loss, in contrast to common “both ear hearing loss”, usually isn’t caused by noise related damage. So, other possible factors should be considered.
Some of the most prevalent causes include the following:
- Meniere’s Disease: Meniere’s Disease is a degenerative hearing condition that can cause vertigo and hearing loss. In many cases, the disease advances asymmetrically: one ear might be affected before the other. Hearing loss in one ear along with ringing is another common symptom of Meniere’s Disease.
- Other infections: One of your body’s most common responses to an infection is to swell up. It’s just what your body does! This response isn’t always localized, so any infection that produces inflammation can lead to the loss of hearing in one ear.
- Ruptured eardrum: A ruptured eardrum will usually be really obvious. Objects in the ear, head trauma, or loud noise (amongst other things) can be the cause of a ruptured eardrum. When the thin membrane dividing your ear canal and your middle ear has a hole in it, this type of injury occurs. Normally, tinnitus and hearing loss as well as a lot of pain result.
- Earwax: Yup, occasionally your earwax can become so packed in there that it blocks your hearing. It’s like using an earplug. If this is the case, do not reach for a cotton swab. Cotton swabs can push the earwax even further up against the eardrum.
- Acoustic Neuroma: While the name might sound kind of intimidating, an acoustic neuroma is a benign tumor that grows on the nerves of the inner ear. You should still take this condition seriously, even though it’s not cancerous, it can still be potentially life threatening.
- Irregular Bone Growth: In extremely rare cases, the cause of your hearing loss could actually be some atypical bone growth getting in the way. And when it grows in a particular way, this bone can actually hinder your hearing.
- Ear infections: Swelling typical results when you have an ear infection. And it will impossible to hear through a swollen, closed up ear canal.
So how should I handle hearing loss in one ear?
Depending on what’s causing your single-sided hearing loss, treatment options will vary. Surgery might be the best solution for specific obstructions such as tissue or bone growth. Some problems, like a ruptured eardrum, will normally heal by themselves. Other problems like excessive earwax can be easily cleared away.
Your single-sided hearing loss, in some cases, may be permanent. And in these situations, we will help by prescribing one of two hearing aid solutions:
- Bone-Conduction Hearing Aids: To help you compensate for being able to hear from one ear only, these hearing aids make use of your bones to conduct the sound waves to your brain, bypassing much of the ear altogether.
- CROS Hearing Aid: This kind of specially designed hearing aid is primarily made to manage single-sided hearing loss. With this hearing aid, sound is picked up at your bad ear and sent to your good ear where it’s decoded by your brain. It’s very complicated, very cool, and very effective.
Your hearing specialist is where it all starts
There’s probably a good reason why you can only hear out of one ear. It’s not something that should be dismissed. It’s important, both for your wellness and for the health of your hearing, to get to the bottom of those causes. So schedule a visit with us today, so you can begin hearing out of both ears again!
References
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7230949/
https://www.hear-it.org/single-sided-deafness
