When I asked my ENT who would be the best guy in the US should I elect to have a revision stapedectomy, that’s who he reccomended.
Maybe this will be able to help
I am having the Stapedectomy done in two weeks. My Dr is in Warren Ohio and he specializes in doing them. He told me I have a 90% chance of success and I am excited to be able to hear much better. He put me on Florical with vitimin D. If anyone would like info on my dr, please contact me.
I just completed my appointment this past week suspecting Otosclerosis.
I went to Dr Lippy after reading an article in the Plain Dealer newspaper of Cleveland, Ohio. My %'s of success offered, were the same as well as the supplement with Florical.
I am confident of Dr. Lippy’s knowledge and experience; but do have reservations about his age. Although he seemed to keep pace with his full work load of the multitudes within his schedule, I found myself trying to see if his hands were steady enough to be in my head risking what little I had left. His walk was slightly hunched over and kept proclaiming over 17,000 Stapedectomy’s. Pictures on his office wall, of him and family about 20-30 years ago. But is he still sharp.
I am very curious of your thoughts, after having this surgery, of his continued skills.
Please respond. Scheduled in May for my first ear followed by the second shortly thereafter.
Thanks, George
Gee, now I have to contridict myself from my prior post. I had primary and revision stapedectomies from Dr.A Scheer in the late 90s. He was similar in stature and skill as Dr.Lippy is now. Scheer was a pioneer in the procedure, and had completed 21,000 procedures. He was at least 70 year old when he operated on me, but is was clearly still with it, and like you I watched his hands carefully and they were steady as a rock. Since I had revision, it goes without saying that the first surgery was not successful. The revision was also not sucessful. I believe I have an understanding of what happened on both and will not detail it here, but I believe the failure of the primary surgery was ‘operator error’ (with the surgeon being the operator). Likelyhood of success in the revision was slim with due to the nature of the failure of the first and the type of prostheric he uses (this was not known until the revision took place).
Lippy is certainly one of the most experienced to do this procedure, but I think you are wise to have reservations due to his age. I would ask him to give you IN WRITING his sucess rate in the LAST 500 procedures. Good luck whatever you decide.
P.S. My present ent thinks he has been so successful because his prosthetic is much better then Scheers.
My new Otolaryngologist believes that, had I been taking Florical regularly over the years, the nerve damage in my ears would not be as extensive.
I’ve been taking in for nearly 6 months and have not experienced any side effects. My family physician has no objections to this supplement so I’m not worried. I just wish I’d know about it much, much sooner.
I was prescribed Fluotic (sodium flouride) tablets when I was first diagnosed with otosclerosis several years ago. I took it for approximately a year along with a calcium supplement. It’s debatable whether it had any effect on the progression of the disease in my ear. I now have approximately 60dB conductive hearing loss and constant tinnitus.
I everybody, this would be my first post here, although, repeated google searches had me reading this forum many times, especially this thread. I’m from London and have been diagnosed with what they say is an 80% chance of Otosclerosis, whatever that means. I do know that I have lost considerable conductive hearing in a relatively short period. 35dB in my left ear over roughly six months and my right ear is catching up. Best of all, I’m a music producer, so no need to explain my depression.
Anyway, I have been frantically searching for recent information about Florical that contains some statistical hard facts, as did many of you. I found something dated 2006 that explains quite a lot, like what it is, what it does, how it works, the idea behind it, test study results, etc.
Here’s the link; it’s not a web page, it points to a word document and will prompt you to open or save it:
http://www.pharmagel.gr/downloads/CONSERVATIVE_TREATMENT_OF_OTOSCLEROSIS11.doc
Hope it helps clarify matters for some of you.
Awesome find!!!
My MD, who is an internationally recognized ear/hearing surgeon, recommended Fluoride supplementation to minimize otosclerosis progression. My understanding of his opinion is that, while research isn’t definitive on this (mostly done in Sweden?), there is evidence that Fluoride slows otosclerosis progression, it probably doesn’t stop it, and it certainly doesn’t reverse it. Given this, potential benefits far outweigh potential risks.
An aspect that I haven’t seen mentioned here is that otosclerosis not only causes conductive hearing loss, but it also usually contributes to neural hearing loss. So, those of us that have had a stapedectomy (both ears in my case; 2 R & 1 L) and have significant neural loss can still benefit from Fluoride.
I’ve been taking Monocal for approximately seven years. My only confusion pertains to Florical vs. Monocal. It appears that the only difference is that Florical contains Sodium Fluoride (yielding 3.75 mg Fluoride) while Monocal contains Sodium Monofluorophosphate (yielding 3 mg Fluoride). Anybody understand the difference and relative merits?
(Hz) L(dB) R(dB)
250 40 50
500 55 65
1K 55 60
2K 60 60
4K 70 70
8K 90 100
L: 88% SD@80dB
R: 64% SD@85dB
L&R stapedectomy
I was treated for 15-20 years by one of the researchers in medicinal treatment of otosclorosis, Dr.Ken Brookler. He did not make a distinction between flourical or monocal
but getting the right amount vitamin D was an important part of the treatment. He also used biphosphonates (osteoperosis medication). Someone posted an excellent paper on this in the last few months in this forum/topic, I suggest you search it out.
There’s some good evidence about the function of one of the D vitamins (D3 iirc) in relation to calcification/normal bone development.
Given that we all tend to spend so much time inside at this time of year, I’d also read that 1 in 5 had a chronic vitamin D shortage, with the relevant implications.
Sorry I haven’t got any sources, but it would make an interesting statistical study to try and correlate the degree of otosclerosis vs. vitamin D levels in the wider population.
I had a stapedectomy in my left ear in 1996 by world-known doctor in Warren. Results were wonderful. Had the right ear done in 1997 and results were terrible. Have tinnitus bad in right ear, and supposedly nerve damage. Be careful with surgery. I should have not had the second surgery. A red flag was the fact that they tested my hearing 4 times the day before that surgery to get the results they wanted. There is always a risk. Have been on florical ever since. But blood test shows I’m low in Vit. D - why the Dr. didn’t have me tested earlier for vit. D is a mystery. Only ordered the blood test after my last hearing test showed more loss. Now I am not sure about the sodium flouride in florical. New studies are pointing to it being cancer-causing. Do I really want to take a toxic, possibly cancer-causing chemical regularly over the years? Does that risk outweigh the risk of possibly progressive hearing loss? After both stapedectomies 13 and 14 years ago, I’m not sure I wouldn’t still be at this point today if I hadn’t had them. Tinnitus - everyone in my family has it. I wear hearing aids and wouldn’t be able to work without them. Am now experimenting, under the watchful eye of a well-informed ENT, with high quality supplements to reduce the tinnitus: magnesium, zinc, selenium, B-12 shots… 400 iu of vit. D isn’t enough. I am taking 4,000-6,000 D3 daily. If I have great results, will post again.
Because you went to the one of the best guys in the world (William Lippy) for Stapedectomy, not one of the best guys in the world for medicinal treatment of the disease! Dr.Lippy will prescribe florical but his real specialty is stapedectomies (revisions in particular).
As for your assertion that florical being a carcinogen, you can decide for youself:
http://www.health.gov/environment/reviewoffluoride/majfind.htm
There are many references on this site to qualified surgeons. You many have to travel to Ohio, Florida or other places. I am in NY City and I had 4 surgeries/revisions in NY City, but it was a while ago. If I were to have a stapedectomy or revision today it would probably not be here because most of the true specialists in this area are in other places. (There not nearly as many surgeons in NY City that I would trust as there were 15 years ago.)
If you have a 40 db air/bone gap, why are you not a candidate for surgery? Have you discussed surgery with a top specialist in this field?
I took that many years ago when my hearing took a nose dive. For me it stablized my hearing. I can’t remember how long I took it for, maybe a year. If I remember correctly it can waste away bones or something to that effect. I would do research to see if the risks outweigh the benefits. I thought for me it was worth trying. If I didn’t take it would my hearing kept getting worse rather than stable (for 7 yrs) no one can no for sure. Some countries have banned it. Research it.