Otosclerosis..... How quickly does it affect people?

[Zebras]

I have searched high and low for this and cannot find anything to substantiate this. Hope I am, and my ENT are right.

A simple google search does say that Otosclerosis can start damaging your cochlears if you leave it too long…but I have no personal experience of otosclerosis.

[wantohear]

I have done the same simple google search and found nothing that says this.

— Updated —

A simple google search does say that Otosclerosis can start damaging your cochlears if you leave it too long…but I have no personal experience of otosclerosis.

                 I have done the same simple google search and found nothing that says this other than this chat board.               If you have found a link, I think we all would be interested in substantiating this discussion on this.  Removing the stapes I believe does not guarantee no progression to the cochlea.

[wantohear]

Here is the link to end this belief.
https://www.bcm.edu/healthcare/care-centers/otolaryngology/procedures/stapedectomy
“Surgery does not stop the growth of otosclerosis, but usually results in correcting the hearing loss.”

— Updated —

A simple google search does say that Otosclerosis can start damaging your cochlears if you leave it too long…but I have no personal experience of otosclerosis.

Here is the link to end this belief of surgery stops otosclerosis linked from Baylor College of Medicine.
https://www.bcm.edu/healthcare/care-…s/stapedectomy
“Surgery does not stop the growth of otosclerosis, but usually results in correcting the hearing loss.”

This is in total agreement of what my ENT told me.

[dstraight]

I am creating this post in the hope that I may help other people in my situation. I have just been diagnosed with Otosclerosis, and my biggest question (amongst other smaller questions) has been; How long will it take to become a significant hearing loss.

S, I want to know; how long since you first noticed a hearing loss did it take to get your hearing to the point it is at now? I know I (and others) likely won’t be affected in the same way, but what would really help me is knowing how other people have been affected by otosclerosis. So, if you have Otosclerosis, please reply and that will really help me and probably others in the same situation that I am in. We could then work out an average and perhaps give people more of an idea of how long it may take. I know that everyone is affected differently, but that is what averages are for.

I have the same question. I know that hearing loss progresses at different rates from person to person. It might be somewhat useful to know the standard deviation and variance of this rate. I’ll have to ask the doctor the next time I see her.

As for me:

Knowledge of my hearing loss began in 2006 - that was the first time I noticed that I had slight hearing loss. At the time I was in a quiet park when I had noticed my friends could hear distant airplanes and cars approaching, but I could not hear either. From 2003 to 2009-ish I also experienced tinnitus, but thought I was hearing motors outside at night (it was a low frequency hum that I would typically notice at night or when everything was quiet). It wasn’t until I moved in 2008 that I realized the sound was in my head. I never correlated this symptom with hearing loss until around 2010. For many years I knew I had slight hearing loss, but wasn’t very concerned until I began to notice it was low frequencies that I could not hear - such as that low frequency boom sound that fireworks shot high in the air give off.

Last September (9/2013) I visited both an audiologist and an ENT surgeon. My hearing loss was finally confirmed and my initial diagnosis is otosclerosis. I have not had a CT scan. My next hearing test is in March. At this time I am considering buying hearing aids and have been using a demo pair for the last two weeks (as of 1/5/2014).

David