What to do when you have a sudden hearing loss.

One day you might wake up and realize, “I’m not hearing well out of my left ear” or “there is a really loud buzzing in my left ear”. This is called “Sudden Hearing Loss (SHL)”. What causes this? It’s hard to say. Some might say it’s a virus attacking the cochlea. Some might call it a vaso-occlusive phenomenon. The truth is we really don’t know. Yes there could be instances when it’s wax impaction or ear infection but there usually are clues that this is the case. When it’s completely unexpected is a more difficult and urgent situation. You don’t have much time to have this diagnosed and treated. 10 DAYS IS ALL YOU HAVE! So if this happens to you, you have to get your hearing tested right away. DON’T DELAY! If you do have a sensorineural hearing loss or nerve damage then you need to be treated. The only treatment that really works is steroids. You can take high dose prednisone for a week with a tapering dose to follow or have steroids injected directly into your ear or both. This typically has a good chance of being successful. The important thing is to get EMERGENT DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT. I hope this saves someone’s hearing.