Recognizing Sudden Hearing Loss
Have you ever woken up in the morning and noticed a significant decrease in your hearing?
Have you ever heard a loud “pop!” in one of your ears and later experienced whistling, ringing, or an increased difficulty in hearing? If you answered yes to one of these questions, you might have a sudden hearing loss.
What Is It?
Sudden hearing loss is characterized by a quick and sudden decrease in hearing, and usually occurs in only one ear. Here are the criteria set by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) for diagnosis of sudden hearing loss:
- A sensorineural hearing loss (damage to internal ear or auditory nerve)
- Hearing loss must be at least 30 dB (e.g., the person can no longer hear people whispering)
- Hearing loss must range across at least three consecutive audiometric frequencies (different tonalities)
- Loss must occur suddenly a progression varying from a few seconds to 72 hours)
What Are the Symptoms?
Patients frequently report the feeling of having their ear blocked. About 30% to 40% of patients also experience vertigo (the room seems to be spinning) or instability (feeling unbalanced). Sudden hearing loss is often associated with tinnitus (whistling or ringing in the ear).
What Are the Causes?
Even though the cause of 70% of sudden hearing loss is unknown, the origin of the remaining 30% is believed to be infectious, immunologic, vascular, traumatic, or neoplasic (tumor).
What Is the Hearing Recovery Prognosis?
Recovery will depend on a series of factors: patient’s age, presence (or absence) of vertigo when hearing loss occurred, hearing loss severity and configuration, as well as time elapsed between hearing loss onset and the first intervention (consulting a specialist).
Recovery also differs from one person to another: some patients will notice a significant improvement while others will see their condition only partially improve.
What Should I Do if I Suspect I Have Sudden Hearing Loss?
To maximize the chances of improvement, you should see an ENT specialist or an audiologist as soon as possible.