Hearing Loss Help  

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

Did you ever wonder which would be the best hospital in which to be treated for various ear problems, or to have surgery to receive a cochlear implant?

Wonder no longer. The U.S. News and World Report has compiled a list of the top 51 ENT hospitals in the country.

In case you are interested, the number one hospital for “ears” in the USA is Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, MD. The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City, IA comes in second. In third place is the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston, MA.

You can find out the details of why these and the rest of the top hospitals ranked the way they did by clicking on the U.S. News web site, then click on “Best Hospitals” in the box at the top left, then choose “Ears, Nose & Throat.” Even faster, just click here and you’ll be taken directly to this list.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

Carolyn asked:

How in the world do I get a sensible hearing test when I have so much internal noise in my ears? My tinnitus sounds just like the “beeps” I’m supposed to be hearing

You have a valid concern. A number of people have asked me the same question. During pure tone testing, the fear is that your tinnitus will mask the faint pure-tone “beeps” especially when they are at the same frequency.

I have the same problem. Fortunately, there are a couple of solutions that work for me. They should work for you also.

Many audiometers now can produce 2 or 3 different “kinds” of tones. However, most people are only familiar with the standard single pure tone “beeps.” Before the test, ask your audiologist what other sounds her audiometer can produce besides these simple “beeps.”

The best one I’ve found is a warble sound. Warble tones are very distinctive. You won’t mix up warble tones with your tinnitus or other phantom sounds–at least I never have. I wish all audiometers had a warble tone option.

If the audiometer doesn’t have a warble tone, the next best solution is the double beep sound. Instead of a single “beep,” you hear a “beep-beep” and by listening for the break between the two beeps, you can more easily separate the audiometer’s sound from your tinnitus or other phantom sounds. This works for me too. However, the warble is still much easier to detect.

Ask for one of these options and you will feel more confident that the pure tone testing produced valid results in spite of your tinnitus.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A man asked:

Is there any difference between how our left and right ears hear and process sounds? I understand the process is different on the left and right side. Can you explain this?

Having two properly-functioning ears greatly improves our listening enjoyment and gives us more balanced hearing, especially when listening to music, or in small group situations. This is because our brains process different information from each of our ears. If we only have one properly-functioning ear, our brains only give us part of the message.

Our brains consist of two halves or hemispheres. The left side of our brain is the logical or the technical side. It gives us discrete pieces of information. The right side of our brain is the aesthetic side. It gives us our appreciation of beauty and our ability to recognize images and patterns of sound.

God wired our brains so that the sounds our right ears hear go mainly to the left side of our brains. There our brains interpret what a person is saying. The sounds our left ears hear go mainly to the right side of our brains. There our brains interpret how the person speaking means it. The two sides of our brains have many interconnecting links so they rapidly “talk” back and forth to each other as they are processing this information.

To be sure, some of the sound impulses from each ear travel to that same side of our brains. However most of the signals cross over to the other side of our brains. This extra information helps us hear and understand better. Thus we need both our ears to completely understand all sounds, speech and music.

For example, take the words “I love you.” Three simple words with a myriad of shades of meanings. Our right ear (and our left brain) would hear and interpret the actual words and analyze the context. Our left ear (and our right brain) would determine how we understand this message–whether sincere, sarcastic or casual.

When listening to music, we “hear” the sounds of the individual instruments of the orchestra in our right ear and “listen” to the blended beauty of the music itself with our left ear.

Therefore, only having one ear detracts from our ability to hear, understand and appreciate sound.

If you are hard of hearing, this is another reason why you need to wear hearing aids in both ears.