Ear, Hearing, and Balance
At Brooklyn ENT & Allergy, we offer comprehensive ear, hearing and balance testing and care for both adults and children. We emphasize our willingness and expertise in treating children with special needs. We also offer the ability to obtain hearing aids from our office whether your insurance offers coverage or not (including managed Medicaid plans).
Ear, Hearing, and Balance FAQS
I think I have hearing loss - what’s my next step?
The first thing to understand about hearing loss is that regardless of your age, no hearing loss is normal. While hearing loss is common as we age, it’s still an abnormality that often needs to be addressed.
What causes hearing loss? Is it permanent?
There are a number of reasons why people lose the ability to hear normally. Those can range from something as simple as having excessive wax build up to profound hearing loss due to age, excessive noise exposure, or infection. Some causes of hearing loss are reversible while others are unfortunately more permanent.
Some reversible causes of hearing loss include excessive wax build up, a middle ear infection/inflammation, or a perforated ear drum. Often these forms of hearing loss are treated in office with a cleaning or drainage procedure while others may need to be treated with medication or surgery.
Some irreversible causes of hearing loss include age-related, noise-induced, hereditary/ genetic, or viral induced inner ear hearing loss. While in most cases there is no treatment for these forms of hearing loss, depending on the severity some people would benefit with the use of hearing aids.
How do I know if my hearing loss is reversible or not?
The only way to truly find out what kind of hearing problem you have is to be seen and evaluated by an expert and often, to have a hearing test.
My child keeps asking for me to repeat things, and I think they may have hearing loss. What should I do?
Pediatric forms of hearing loss are often related to frequent or recurrent ear infections or inflammation of the middle ear.
Chronic fluid buildup in the middle ear is the most common reason for prolonged pediatric hearing loss. Luckily, the majority of children will clear this fluid on their own without any intervention.
However, there are a number of children that will not be able to clear this fluid and would benefit from drainage of this fluid and the placement of tubes in the child’s ears. Children who concurrently have a speech delay or other developmental delays will often benefit in the least from a full hearing evaluation and occasionally surgical approaches to restoring hearing.
Other forms of pediatric hearing loss include excess wax build up and hereditary hearing loss.
What do I do if I have been feeling dizzy?
Dizziness as it relates to the ears is often referred to as vertigo. Vertigo by definition is the sensation of movement in the absence of true movement most often described as a room spinning sensation. While not all vertigo is caused by an ear problem, it is certainly important to be seen and evaluated by an expert to help determine whether or not your problem is being caused by a dysfunction of your ears.
Dr. Pantelides offers the experience and expertise to help identify the source of your problem and often treat or cure the problem in the office setting.