Deafness In One Ear

It’s not always easy to tell if your hearing is getting worse in one ear. Sometimes other people might notice something before you do.

Common signs include:

• difficulty hearing other people clearly and misunderstanding what they say, especially in noisy places (speech in noise)

• not knowing which direction a sound is coming from (spatial hearing)

• asking people to repeat themselves and finding it hard to keep up with a conversation

• listening to music or watching TV with the volume higher than other people need it

• finding it hard to hear when you’re talking to someone on the phone

• feeling tired or stressed from having to concentrate while listening (cognitive fatigue)

There are many reasons why you might lose hearing in one ear, but some of these causes aren’t fully understood.

Causes of deafness in one ear can include: 

• ageing – a gradual decline in your hearing over time

• damage – often from loud noise over many years

• an ear infection – you might notice an earache, high temperature, itching in and around the ear, a feeling of pressure in your ear, and discharge coming out of your ear

• earwax build-up – causing itchiness and the feeling that your ear is blocked

• a perforated eardrum – symptoms include sudden hearing loss after an ear infection, a very loud noise, or a change in air pressure on a plane

• sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) – hearing loss, usually in one ear, alongside dizziness and ringing in your ear, or feeling like your ear needs to pop

• certain inherited disorders – such as neurofibromatosis Type 2, which may cause acoustic neuromas in one ear. This is a noncancerous tumour that develops on the main nerve leading from the inner ear to the brain

• being hit in the head and/or a traumatic brain injury (TMI) – caused by a sports injury or car accident, for example

If you have any symptoms of deafness in one ear, we recommend making an appointment with one of our consultants in our outpatient Ear, Nose and Throat centre. At a consultation, your specialist will ask you about your symptoms, your medical history, check for signs of earwax build-up, ear infection, and may also run some other tests.

If you’ve hurt your ear, or there’s a possibility of a tumour in your ear, your consultant may perform a CT or MRI scan to check the middle and inner sections of your ear. Once other causes are ruled out/confirmed, you’ll go through further hearing tests to find out the level of your hearing loss. The most effective treatment for you will be based on the results of your tests.

It’s not always possible to prevent deafness in one ear, but you might be able to reduce your risk by:

• using hearing protection – such as earplugs or earmuffs during loud activities, including concerts, riding motorcycles, or working with loud machinery

• lowering the volume – when you listen to music through headphones, keep the volume low enough for you to hear others speaking, and don’t exceed 80% volume for more than 90 minutes a day

• not sticking anything into your ear canal – this includes your fingers, cotton swabs, and hairpins. Some objects can become lodged in your ear canal, or cause an eardrum rupture

• avoiding smoking – it can affect circulation and your hearing

• exercising regularly – this can help prevent health issues like diabetes or high blood pressure, which can cause hearing problems

• managing any chronic illnesses – such as diabetes and Ménière's disease, to help prevent further damage to your ears

If left untreated, deafness in one ear can affect how you live your life and your wellbeing. Complications include:

• anxiety

• issues with localised hearing (understanding where a sound has come from)

• feeling isolated from society

• plasticity – this is when a lack of stimulation causes the brain to stop its normal learning processes on the side of the affected ear

• speech and language and/or behaviour issues in children

How deafness in one ear is treated depends on what's causing it and how severe it is. Options to treat partial deafness include:

• antibiotics as tablets or ear drops – if an ear infection is causing your hearing loss

• flushing, sucking or scraping the earwax out – if you have earwax build-up that’s caused a blockage

• middle ear surgery – such as myringoplasty to repair a hole in the eardrum, ossiculoplasty to reconstruct the tiny bones that transmit sound, and mastoidectomy to remove diseased tissue from the mastoid bone

• a conventional hearing aid – wearing a hearing aid in your non-hearing ear to help you pick up sounds better

• a bone conduction hearing aid or implant – these hearing aids amplify sound via vibrations through the bones of the skull

• middle ear implant – surgically implanted hearing aids that help sound vibrations reach the inner ear (cochlea), by making the middle ear bones vibrate

But once deafness reaches profound levels in one ear, even the loudest amplification will no longer help. The focus then moves to sending sound over from the non-hearing ear to the hearing ear, which includes treatments like:

• CROS (contralateral routing of signal) hearing aid – it uses 2 hearing devices, including a hearing aid that you wear in your hearing ear, and a microphone that picks up the sounds in your non-hearing ear, and sends them to your hearinf ear

• a bone conduction hearing aid or implant – these devices work by bypassing the damaged outer or middle ear and helping sound vibrations move directly through the skull bone to the inner ear

• cochlear implants – a surgically fitted electronic device to improve both spatial hearing and speech in noise. It sends sounds past the damaged part of the ear straight to the cochlear nerve. These signals trigger the cochlear nerve, which sends signals to the brain

You’ll need a multi-specialist assessment with both our audiology and speech therapy teams before any implant surgery can go ahead.

At Welbeck, our ENT specialists are experts in their field and are dedicated to providing world-class care to every patient.

With access to colleagues across other specialties, our consultants are also able to refer within the Welbeck ecosystem if required to ensure you receive the treatment you need as quickly as possible, all under one roof.  

All appointments, testing, treatment, and follow-up appointments take place within our state-of-the-art facilities, enabling us to deliver accurate diagnostics and advanced treatments.

Your health is important to us, so we strive to offer same-day appointments whenever possible.

Our consultants are recognised by the major health insurance companies. If you have private health insurance, your treatment at Welbeck can begin once you have obtained authorisation. We also provide care to self-paying patients. Learn more about the different payment options at Welbeck.

Get in touch today to book an appointment.