Life Sounds Great: difficulty hearing

Thursday, March 2, 2017

The ringing in my ear stopped when the doctor removed earwax from my ear. What can I do to clean my ears?

The ear secretes oils from two different glands which mix together to produce earwax (or cerumen). It is healthy and normal to have some earwax. It cleans and protects your ears by collecting dirt, dust and other matter in the ear canal and moving them out of the ear. Jaw movement whether from chewing or talking, helps to push earwax to the ear opening where it can be washed off with the wipe of a cloth. This is a normal process, but sometimes this self-cleaning process fails resulting in a buildup of earwax. When cerumen builds up it can block the ear canal and can cause a temporary decrease in hearing and when on the eardrum it can cause ringing in the ear.

Often, when someone attempts to “clean” the ear canals, earwax is pushed on the eardrum or deep into the ear canal. We DO NOT recommend using cotton swabs, paper clips, keys, ear candles, or other items which can push the wax deeper in the canal or harm the ear canal. The American Academy of Otolaryngology recently published guidelines for cleaning your ear canals. Following these guidelines can help protect your ears:

· Don't overdo it when cleaning your ears. Over cleaning can irritate the ear canal and possibly cause an infection.

· Don't stick things in your ear. Cotton swabs, hair pins, toothpicks or other such objects can cause a cut in the ear canal, a hole in the eardrum, and/or dislocation of the hearing bones, causing problems including bleeding, hearing loss, dizziness and ringing.

· Never use "ear candles." The guidelines say there is no evidence that this alternative medicine practice can remove impacted earwax. And so-called candling might cause serious damage to the ear canal and eardrum.

First and foremost, check with your audiologist or physician on whether or not you should clean your ears. Also, seek medical attention if you have ear drainage, bleeding or pain. Call 440-205-8848 to schedule an ear inspection and cerumen removal.

Life sounds great! Enjoy every moment!

Jane Kukula, AuD & Ashley Spisak, AuD

8897 Mentor Ave

Mentor, Ohio 44060

440-205-8848

Fax: 440-205-9818

http://aacHEAR.org

Thursday, February 2, 2017

You mentioned using Sound Therapy as a means of tinnitus management. What is Sound Therapy?

Tinnitus is the presence of sound in the ears or head. Commonly, people report ringing, humming, buzzing even clicking sounds and at times, there may be multiple sounds. Tinnitus can present in various degrees and can be constant or intermittent. When severe, it can cause stress, anxiety and sleep deprivation. Often there is no cure for it. Sound Therapy is a means for you to change your perception of it and decrease its interference with your life.

Many times people are able to just ignore tinnitus. While others’ can’t seem to take their focus off it. We know that those who shift their attention to other things are much less bothered by it. Progressive Tinnitus management including Sound Therapy, is a method for triaging, assessing and managing tinnitus on an individual basis. It provides you with tools to aid you in changing your perceptions of your tinnitus and shift your attention away from your tinnitus.

Sound Therapy is a corner stone of tinnitus management. It uses three types of sound, interesting sounds, soothing sound and background sound. Soothing sound can reduce anxiety and stress. Background sound reduces the contrast of tinnitus to the room noises, reducing perceived intensity of the tinnitus. Interesting sound shifts attention from the tinnitus to other sounds.

If your tinnitus interferes with your life, causing anxiety, stress and or sleep deprivation, call for an appointment. It will start with an evaluation of your hearing and tinnitus. From there we will assess your candidacy for sound therapy and work with you to design and implement a personal management plan including Sound Therapy.