Ear, Hearing, and Balance Disorders

• Sudden hearing loss—this is a true emergency that is often ignored. Proper IMMEDIATE treatment can double the chances of having one's hearing return.
• Hearing difficulties—there are many causes. A hearing test in the office and a good history and examination will determine what kind of hearing loss a person has and what can be done about it.
• Tinnitus—ringing in both ears can be a common symptom associated with a variety of other problems. Sometimes treatment is as simple as changing a medicine --other times treatment is difficult. Ringing in one ear or pulsating ringing however, needs to be investigated further as it can be a sign of a more significant problem
• Wax Impaction—a common problem often caused by using Q tips the ears can be easily and comfortably corrected in the office
• Recurrent ear infection—more common in children because of underdeveloped Eustachian tube function, there are treatment options, sometimes this involves placing a small temporary tube within the eardrum.
• Vertigo—the hallucination of motion or a sense of the room spinning has many causes. Fortunately, once the correct cause of the vertigo has been diagnosed, treatment is usually quite helpful
• Meniere's Disease—an overly diagnosed problem where a person will have attacks of vertigo, hearing loss, and ringing. There are multiple treatment options
• Positional Vertigo—a common problem where turning the head causes a room spinning sensation. It can usually be fixed with a simple head rotation maneuver done in the office
• Otosclerosis—this is hearing loss caused by stiffening of the small bones in the middle ear. This can usually be improved with hearing aids or surgery
• Cholesteatoma—The ear drum can actually get sucked into the middle ear over time and collect debris. This debris can erode the hearing bones causing hearing loss or chronic drainage. Occasionally the debris can erode through more important structures and cause more serious problems.This requires surgery to correct.
• Chronic external canal and middle ear infections—needs a specialist to evaluate. Treatment is usually effective once the underlying cause is solved