Let’s pretend you go to a rock concert. You’re awesome, so you spend all night in the front row. It’s enjoyable, though it’s not good for your ears which will be ringing when you wake up the next morning. (That’s not as fun.)
But what 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 culprit. Something else might be at work. And when you develop hearing loss in only one ear… you may feel a bit worried!
Also, your general hearing may not be working right. Usually, your brain is sorting out information from both ears. So it can be disorienting to get signals from one ear only.
Why hearing loss in one ear results in problems
Your ears generally work in concert (no pun intended) with each other. Your two side facing ears help you hear more precisely, similar to how your two front facing eyes help your depth perception. So when one of your ears quits working correctly, havoc can happen. Here are some of the most prevalent:
- Pinpointing the direction of sound can become a great challenge: You hear someone trying to get your attention, but looking around, you can’t locate where they are. It’s exceptionally hard to triangulate the direction of sound with only one ear working.
- When you’re in a noisy setting it becomes very hard to hear: With only one working ear, loud spaces 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 can’t be sure how loud anything is: Just like you need both ears to triangulate location, you sort of need both ears to determine how loud something is. Think about it like this: You won’t be sure if a sound is far away or just quiet if you don’t know where the sound is coming from.
- You wear your brain out: Your brain will become more exhausted faster if you can only hear from one ear. That’s because it’s trying desperately to compensate for the loss of hearing from one of your ears. And when hearing loss abruptly happens in one ear, that’s particularly true. Normal daily activities, as a result, will become more taxing.
So how does hearing loss in one ear happen?
Hearing specialists call impaired hearing in one ear “unilateral hearing loss” or “single-sided hearing loss.” Single sided hearing loss, unlike typical “both ear hearing loss”, usually isn’t caused by noise related damage. This means that it’s time to evaluate other possible causes.
Some of the most common causes include the following:
- Irregular Bone Growth: In extremely rare cases, the cause of your hearing loss may actually be some atypical bone growth getting in the way. And when it grows in a specific way, this bone can actually interfere with your hearing.
- Ear infections: Infections of the ear can trigger swelling. And this inflammation can close up your ear canal, making it impossible for you to hear.
- Meniere’s Disease: When somebody is coping with the degenerative condition called Menier’s disease, they frequently experience vertigo and hearing loss. Often, the disease progresses asymmetrically: one ear might be impacted before the other. Menier’s disease frequently is accompanied by single sided hearing loss and ringing.
- Other infections: One of your body’s most prevailing responses to an infection is to swell up. It’s just how your body responds. Swelling in response to an infection isn’t necessarily localized so hearing loss in one ear can be caused by any infection that would trigger inflammation.
- Earwax: Yup, occasionally your earwax can become so packed in there that it blocks your hearing. It has a similar effect to wearing earplugs. If you’re experiencing earwax plugging your ear, never try to clear it out with a cotton swab. Cotton swabs can push the earwax even further up against the eardrum.
- Ruptured eardrum: Normally, a ruptured eardrum is difficult to miss. It can be due to head trauma, loud noises, or foreign objects in the ear (amongst other things). When the thin membrane separating your ear canal and your middle ear gets a hole in it, this type of injury happens. The result can be quite painful, and normally triggers tinnitus or hearing loss in that ear.
- Acoustic Neuroma: An acoustic neuroma is a benign tumor that forms on the nerves of the inner ear and might sound a bit more intimidating than it normally is. You should still take this condition seriously, even though it isn’t cancerous, it can still be potentially life threatening.
So how should I deal with hearing loss in one ear?
Depending on what’s triggering your single-sided hearing loss, treatment options will vary. In the case of certain obstructions (such as bone or tissue growths), surgery might be the ideal solution. Some problems, like a ruptured eardrum, will normally heal on their own. Other issues such as too much earwax can be easily removed.
Your single-sided hearing loss, in some circumstances, may be permanent. We will help, in these cases, by prescribing one of two possible hearing aid solutions:
- Bone-Conduction Hearing Aids: These hearing aids bypass most of the ear by utilizing your bones to transfer sound to the brain.
- CROS Hearing Aid: This type of uniquely manufactured hearing aid is specifically made to address single-sided hearing impairment. These hearing aids can identify sounds from your plugged ear and transfer them to your brain via your good ear. It’s quite effective not to mention complex and very cool.
Your hearing specialist is where it all starts
There’s most likely a good reason why you’re only hearing out of one ear. It’s not something that should be dismissed. It’s important, both for your wellness and for your hearing health, 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