When your ears are giving you trouble due to a hearing difficulty, chronic ear infections, or other ear-related ailments, you can feel isolated from your friends, family, and co-workers, and disconnected from the way you’d like to live your life.

If you or a loved one have an ear or hearing concern, please call one of our convenient locations. We look forward to serving you.

Conditions We Treat

Cholesteatoma
Cholesteatomas are abnormal growths of skin tissue within the middle ear, caused by problems such as ear infection.

Conductive Hearing Loss
Conductive hearing loss occurs when disease, trauma, infection, or another problem causes sound waves to travel poorly through the outer ear canal to the eardrum, the middle ear’s three tiny bones, and the inner ear.

Dizziness and Motion Sickness
Symptoms such as lightheadedness, nausea, blurred vision, and a feeling of unsteadiness may point to dizziness or motion sickness, which involve balance and equilibrium, both controlled by the body’s vestibular system.

Earaches and Otitis Media
Ear pain in one or both ears may be a symptom of otitis media, inflammation of the middle ear. This may be caused by an infection.

Middle-Ear Infection (Chronic Otitis Media) and Hearing Loss
Middle-ear infections aren’t unusual in childhood, but sometimes they keep coming back or won’t clear up with antibiotic treatment. They can lead to serious problems such as hearing loss and should be addressed quickly.

Hyperacusis
Hyperacusis is a disorder involving heightened sensitivity to common sounds such as running water, the crunch of leaves, and other everyday noises that typically would not annoy or alarm most people.

Otosclerosis
Otosclerosis is a disease of abnormal bone growth in the middle ear. It mainly causes gradual hearing loss in one or both ears but also includes other symptoms such as tinnitus and vertigo.

Autoimmune Inner-Ear Disease
Autoimmune inner-ear disease is a rare condition in which the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks normal inner-ear cells as if they were a virus or bacteria. The resultant inflammation causes rapidly progressive hearing loss and includes other symptoms such as tinnitus, balance problems, and the feeling of plugged ears.

Hearing Loss
Trouble listening amid background noise, following conversations even in small groups, or understanding what’s being said on TV and on the phone can indicate a hearing loss. Most hearing loss can be treated, especially with early detection through regular checkups.

Ear Infection and Hearing Loss
Ear infections may be viral, bacterial, or fungal in nature, and they typically can cause mild temporary hearing loss or — in the case of repeated and untreated infections — more severe or permanent hearing impairment.

Noise-Induced Hearing Loss
Sounds that register 85 decibels or above can damage the inner ear and cause noise-induced hearing loss, one of the most preventable forms of hearing impairment. MP3 players, fireworks, lawn mowers, concerts, and other sources of loud noise can put your hearing at risk, so it’s important to limit exposure, reduce the volume, and wear effective hearing protection.

Perforated Eardrum
A perforated eardrum involves a rupture, tear, or hole in the tympanic membrane between the ear canal and middle ear. Causes can include head injury, barotrauma, fluid buildup from infection, a sudden explosive sound, or an object pushed into the ear.

Swimmer’s Ear
Swimmer’s ear is an outer-ear infection typically caused by bacterial or fungal growth when the skin in the ear canal becomes macerated from activities such as swimming, allowing microbes to infect the ear canal. It can cause pain, fever, temporary hearing loss, and other symptoms but is treatable.

Tinnitus
Tinnitus is the perception of ringing, buzzing, humming, clicking, or other sounds in one or both ears that no one else can hear. It’s a symptom of an underlying medical condition, typically hearing loss.

 

Treatment Options

Cochlear Implants
Cochlear implants are small, surgically placed electronic devices comprising an external part behind the ear and an internal part under the skin that do the work of the damaged inner ear. They create the sensation of sound when profound hearing loss can’t be sufficiently improved by hearing aids.

Ear Tubes
Ear tubes or tympanostomy tubes are small cylinders surgically inserted in the eardrum to relieve chronic ear infection or persistent middle-ear fluid. Ear-tube insertion is especially common for children.

Buying a Hearing Aid
Hearing aids come in many sizes, styles, features, and capabilities to improve hearing, but it’s important to start with a hearing test. Licensed audiologists — whether independent or on staff at an ENT office — are trained to evaluate hearing, determine the type of hearing loss, and recommend the appropriate hearing technology for your lifestyle and listening needs.

Earwax Management
Earwax, that yellowish-brown substance produced by the glands of the external ear, may conjure the ick factor for many people, but it actually serves a pretty important purpose. Learn what it’s there for, how we can help with earwax management, and what to do if it becomes a problem.