Can frequent ear infections cause hearing loss?

Question

My son is 5 and has had a lot of ear infections but never tubes. Recently he has been having a hard time hearing. I asked his doctor about this and she made him an appointment with an audiologist. What exactly does an audiologist do? Tubes? Any information on this will be appreciated.

Answer 1

I really have a lot to say about that!!! I am a 27 year old woman who has had several surgeries on both of my hears and start having problems with them ever since I was a toddler(currently pregnant with my second child and having and ear infection) and YES!! you can have hearing loss, (I lost 40% one one ear and about 30% on the other one ) from frequent ear infections as well as perforations on the inside of the ear, and they become very painful and difficult to deal with, you get frequent colds, start having sinnus problems, and everything else!!
The good news is that there are tons of things than can be done now, that they did not do before!! So, Don't worry, seems like you detected the problem very soon and he will start having treatment for that!!
About the Audiologist, the first thing he will do is some kind of test to see if his hearing has changed , they will put him a little room and put him some hearphones and he will start listen to all this sounds, and he will be letting the audiologist now which,when and how, he hears the sounds!! and the audiologist will be measuring all that to give a more accurate answer about his hearing loss or not!!! and after that he will talk to his doctor and figure out the best treatment for him!!!
Seems to me like they are following all the steps and now what they are doing, so...just keep it up and you little one will be perfectly fine!!
Good LUCK!!!

Answer 2

My ear nose throat doctor put tubes in our son at the age of 1 1/2 because he had alot of ear infections and was sick all the time after the tubes he has been 100% better we still take him in right away if he complains but I think you had better check into this right away because I do think you can do damage to the ear if your son dosen't get relief from his infection. Take care hope all goes well. I am not sure what a audiologist does but maybe a ear nose throat doctor would be another avenue to try if you have a long wait to get into the audiologist Good Luck!!

Answer 3

An audiologist will check his level of hearing for any loss. Yes repeated ear infections can cause hearing loss especially if the ear drum has bean blown. As for tubes...go for it. My daughter had them at 17 months and it was the best thing. She always had ear infections. would have double lots of antibiotics and then one week later have another infection. She got grommets (tubes) and is now 7 and has only had a couple of infections since. By 3 the tubes had fallen out and life got back to normal because the only down fall is that you CAN NOT get water in the ears. So when washing hair plugs must be but in the ear (they are like a ball of plastic that mould to the ear) and preferably (some say absolutely none) swimming. But it was worth it to have my daughter pain free and not on antibiotics

Answer 4

Yes, frequent ear infections can cause mild to moderate hearing loss (I have hearing loss from it). An audiologist is only a person who administers hearing tests. Your son will be put in a sound proof booth (with a window so he can see you) and be given instrustions from headphones he will be wearing. Examples...raise your hand when you hear the sound, raise the same hand as the side you hear the sound, raise your hand when you stop hearing the sound, repeat the words they say...etc. It's really easy. Any tubes would be done through an ENT (ear, nose, throat) specialist. They would decide if the child needs tubes or anything else (sometimes other things could be causing the infections). If you don't already, you should look into having your son seen by an ENT specialist. Good Luck!!

I grew up with chronic ear infections, had 4 sets of tubes in and had SO many hearing tests. I have 30% loss in one ear and 41% loss in the other.

Answer 5

Frequent or prolonged ear infections can be a cause of hearing loss, but not always.

An audiologist will give age-appropriate hearing tests, and hopefully do a tympanogram - which is a small machine that looks like an otoscope (the handheld thing doctors use to look in the ears and nose) that measures if there's fluid behind the eardrums - which I've seen to be a big cause of "hearing loss".

Answer 6

An audiologist will give him a hearing test. My son had tons of ear infections and he does have a hard time hearing now because of it. He also has speech issues. Take him to the audiologist to be checked out. Good luck to you!

Answer 7

Yes! I've been through this three times with my kids. An audiologist does hearing tests in a sound-proof room to see how much hearing loss there is, and then an ear, nose and throat Dr. will schedule to insert the P.E. tubes, which takes only about 15-20 minutes.It's an outpatient procedure and kids are back to normal in no time.

Answer 8

unfortunately yes it can; i have had chronic ear infections that have gotten so bad to have caused nearly 50% hearing loss in my left ear. I had to have a pretty nasty surgery to remove the "tumor" (cholesteatoma) removed, had the 3 bones in the middle ear grafted (ossicles) and my eardrum grafted and the mastoid cavity drilled out for better aeration of the middle ear space. The audiologist will do a hearing test with a series of pitches, tones, decible levels, and different areas of the head to determine what type of hearing loss he has and if surgery is warranted (usually tubes at that age). Good luck and hopefull the lil guy will grow out of it. Most children that age do grow out of it and the most common cause is Eustacian Tube Dysfunction. (the tube that runs from his nasal sinuses to his middle ear space that equalizes pressure and helps drain fluid from behind the eardrum) heres a website that can help with any questions. I know it's the Michigan Ear institute but it is very informative!

Answer 9

yes they can......if you have an appointment with an audiologist they can better explain this to you though...