Complaints & connections · borters.ch
A sudden hearing loss in one ear — the earlier assessed, the better the prospects.
Also known as: sudden hearing loss · idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss
Open in the tool — with search and all the links →This compilation is for information and replaces neither medical diagnosis nor treatment. If you have symptoms, see a doctor.
A sudden, usually one-sided drop in hearing without an obvious external cause — often with a feeling of pressure in the ear, tinnitus or dizziness. Many describe it as “cotton wool in the ear”. The cause remains unexplained in most cases; circulatory and inflammatory processes in the inner ear are discussed. Some cases improve on their own. Because early treatment with steroids may improve the outlook, sudden hearing loss counts as urgent: see an ENT doctor within days, do not wait.
A single, sudden loss of hearing is sudden deafness. If instead the hearing breaks down again and again on the same side, with spinning dizziness each time, and the ear recovers in between, a different illness lies behind it.
Treatment with cortisone works best if it starts within a few days. Waiting over the weekend costs exactly the window that matters.
A plug of earwax, fluid behind the eardrum or an inflammation give the same feeling and need something quite different. That is settled in five minutes.
Hearing loss with spinning dizziness and pressure in the ear that comes in attacks is a different picture from a one-off sudden hearing loss. The distinction determines what follows.
A hearing test after two to four weeks shows how much has come back. If a loss remains, that is the moment to talk about a hearing aid and about imaging of the hearing nerve.
In the weeks afterwards avoid loud noise and see to enough sleep. That is no cure, but it spares the ear an extra load during the recovery phase.
About half of all cases improve by themselves within the first two weeks. That is exactly why the benefit of cortisone is hard to measure — and exactly why a quick appointment still counts, because the chance shrinks with the days.
High-dose cortisone is the usual route — its benefit is debated, because hearing recovers within two weeks in about half of people without treatment too. What is clearer: the earlier it starts, the better the result, and after two to four weeks it adds little. That is why sudden hearing loss counts as urgent. Cortisone injected directly into the middle ear is the second attempt if the first is not enough.
Within minutes to hours, usually noticed on waking, almost always only one ear, and without anything hurting. It is exactly this painlessness that makes many wait.
A dull feeling of pressure, as if the ear were blocked, and the feeling of hearing one’s own voice inside the head. That is often what is noticed first — not the hearing itself.
A new tone almost always comes with it. Some hear sounds distorted or at the wrong pitch, so that music sounds wrong or speech becomes tinny.
A plug of earwax, fluid behind the eardrum, an inflammation. These three give the same feeling, are harmless and are recognised in five minutes — which is why the look into the ear comes first.
Belongs to the first round, because a marked anaemia affects the supply to the inner ear and slows the recovery.
Looks for an inflammation as the cause. A normal value is the rule and does not speak against the diagnosis.
An unrecognised diabetes is among the circumstances that worsen the course — and it changes how a cortisone treatment is tolerated.
Only with a fitting history: a tick bite, a spreading redness, a facial palsy. Without those hints the value makes no sense here.
Without B12 the insulating layer of the nerves is not maintained. A lack causes tingling, numbness and unsteadiness in the dark — and it is one of the few reasons for nerve trouble that can be fully undone if found early.
The nerves cover their energy needs through thiamine. It runs short with alcohol, after stomach operations, with long-lasting vomiting and under water tablets.
Here both count: a lack harms the nerves, and too high an intake over months harms them as well. Supplements therefore belong taken in a dose that has a reason.
Works together with B12. Given alone, folate can improve the blood count while the B12 deficiency goes on damaging the nerves — which is why both are looked at together.
Used alongside; the studies are small and inconsistent. Something else is decisive: sudden hearing loss belongs treated in the first days — every week of waiting costs a chance of recovery.
Studied together with cortisone in small trials, with inconsistent results. For preventing noise damage there is somewhat more: small investigations, mostly in young men under noise, with less hearing loss. That says nothing about sudden hearing loss itself.
Clearly worthwhile and well supported when deficient — vegan, older adults, certain drugs. No energy boost without a deficiency.
In pregnancy clearly established against neural-tube defects, otherwise mainly with deficiency. Can mask a B12 deficiency — watch both.
Diabetes and lipid disorders occur more often with sudden hearing loss; the inner ear hangs on a single fine artery with no detour. That explains why it reacts so sensitively to blood supply.
Cortisone is the usual treatment — as tablets or injected directly into the middle ear. The benefit is contested, but the timing is not: the earlier it begins, the better the outlook.
In sudden hearing loss the first days count. Steroids are the usual treatment; no food and no supplement replaces them. That belongs said clearly, because time is what matters here.
Used in sudden hearing loss with inconsistent evidence. The first days and the steroid treatment are decisive — waiting costs hearing here.
TCM assigns the ear to the Kidney — hearing loss and tinnitus count there as signs of exhausted reserve. With sudden hearing loss only one thing counts, though: treat as early as possible.
The ear map comes from France, not from China — Paul Nogier devised it in the 1950s. It is often counted as TCM although it is younger than the motor car.