Let’s pretend you go to a rock show. You’re awesome, so you spend all night in the front row. It isn’t exactly hearing-healthy, but it’s fun, and the next day, you wake up with both ears ringing. (That part’s less fun.)
But what happens if you can only hear out of one ear when you wake up? Well, if that’s the case, the rock concert may not be the cause. Something else might be at work. And you may be a little alarmed when you experience hearing loss in only one ear.
Moreover, your overall hearing might not be working properly. Usually, your brain is sorting out information from both ears. So only receiving signals from a single ear can be disorienting.
Why hearing loss in one ear leads to issues
Your ears basically work together (no pun intended) with each other. Your two outward facing ears help you hear more precisely, much like how your two forward facing eyes help your depth perception. So hearing loss in one ear can wreak havoc. Among the most prevalent effects are the following:
- You can have trouble identifying the direction of sounds: Someone yells your name, but you have no clue where they are! It’s extremely difficult to triangulate the direction of sound with only one ear working.
- It’s challenging to hear in noisy places: Loud settings such as event venues or noisy restaurants can become overwhelming with only one ear working. That’s because all that sound seems to be coming from every-which-direction randomly.
- You can’t be sure how loud anything is: You need both ears to triangulate location, but you also need both to figure out volume. Think about it this way: You won’t be certain if a sound is distant or merely quiet if you don’t know where the sound was originating from.
- Your brain becomes tired: When you lose hearing in one ear, your brain can get extra tired, extra fast. That’s because it’s failing to get the whole sound range from just one ear so it’s working overly hard to make up for it. This is particularly 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 how does hearing loss in one ear happen?
“Single sided Hearing Loss” or “unilateral hearing loss” are technical names for when hearing is impaired on one side. Single sided hearing loss, in contrast to common “both ear hearing loss”, typically isn’t the result of noise related damage. This means that it’s time to look at other possible factors.
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. It’s not unusual with Menier’s disease to lose hearing on one side before the other. Menier’s disease often is accompanied by single sided hearing loss and ringing.
- Ruptured eardrum: A ruptured eardrum will typically be extremely obvious. Objects in the ear, head trauma, or loud noise (amongst other things) can be the cause of a ruptured eardrum. And it occurs when a hole is created between the thin membrane that separates your ear canal and middle ear. The result can be quite painful, and usually causes tinnitus or hearing loss in that ear.
- Earwax: Yup, occasionally your earwax can get so packed in there that it blocks your hearing. It’s like using an earplug. If you have earwax blocking your ear, never try to clean it out with a cotton swab. Cotton swabs can push the earwax even further up against the eardrum.
- Irregular Bone Growth: In very rare cases, the cause of your hearing loss might actually be some atypical bone growth getting in the way. And when it grows in a certain way, this bone can actually impede your hearing.
- Ear infections: Swelling typical happens when you have an ear infection. And this inflammation can block your ear canal, making it impossible for you to hear.
- Acoustic Neuroma: While the name may sound kind of frightening, an acoustic neuroma is a benign tumor that forms on the nerves of the inner ear. While it’s not cancerous, necessarily, an acoustic neuroma is still a serious (and possibly life-threatening) condition that you should consult your provider about.
- Other infections: One of your body’s most common responses to an infection is to swell up. It’s just how your body responds. This reaction isn’t always localized, so any infection that triggers inflammation can result in the loss of hearing in one ear.
So… What do I do about my single-sided hearing loss?
Treatment options for single-sided hearing loss will differ based upon the root cause. In the case of certain obstructions (like bone or tissue growths), surgery might be the ideal option. A ruptured eardrum or similar problems will usually heal naturally. And still others, such as an earwax based obstruction, can be cleared away by basic instruments.
In some cases, however, your single-sided hearing loss may be permanent. We will help, in these situations, by prescribing one of two potential hearing aid solutions:
- CROS Hearing Aid: This special type of hearing aid is designed exclusively for those who have 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 detected by your brain. It’s very complicated, very cool, and very effective.
- Bone-Conduction Hearing Aids: These hearing aids bypass much of the ear by utilizing your bones to transmit sound to the brain.
It all starts with your hearing specialist
If you aren’t hearing out of both of your ears, there’s most likely a reason. It isn’t something that should be dismissed. Getting to the bottom of it is essential for hearing and your overall health. So schedule an appointment 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