5 Yr Old Unable To Hear From Left Ear. What May Be The Cause ?

Posted on Mon, 11 Jun 2012

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 Answered on

Fri, 13 Jul 2012 Last reviewed on

Question : Since the last 2 days, my 5 yr old son is unable to hear from his left ear. I am worried what caused this...and not sure how long it would take to get his hearing back to normal.

Answered by Dr. Naveen (2 hours later)

Hi

Thanks for the query

Sudden loss of hearing could be due to various causes such as wax in the ear, fluid inside the ear drum, foreign body in the ear and nerve injury.

The most common cause of sudden loss of hearing in children is impacted wax blocking the ear canal. The impacted wax swells up when some amount of water enters into the ear, particularly, during bath or swimming blocking the external auditory canal and the sound.

Second most common cause is fluid inside the ear drum. Following an attack of flu, the tube connecting the nose and the ear (Eustachian tube) gets blocked, causing trapping of the fluid in the middle ear. Accumulation of the fluid inside the middle ear causes impairment in the movement of the ear drum leading to temporary deafness.

Foreign body insertion inside the ear is one of the common causes of reduced hearing in the children.

Rarely, any viral infection of the ear can cause damage to the auditory nerve leading to either transient or permanent deafness.

The exact cause of the problem can be found out only after examining the ear. I would suggest you to consult a good ENT specialist for a complete evaluation and a thorough management.

Hope I have answered your query; I will be available for the follow-up queries.

Regards
Dr. Naveen Kumar N.
ENT and Head & Neck Surgeon

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar