About 4 years ago I had what seemed to be a viral attack in my right ear. There was no cold or flu or sinus problems, but my ear suddenly filled with fluid and tinnitus appeared at the same time. The fluid stayed in the ear for about about 5 days or so. When the fluid was gone there was a high frequency loss from about 2k hz on up. The hearing ability does not appear to change in those frequencies. I did some reading and from the info I gathered it was a sensorineural loss. I had come to that conclusion because if it were a conductive loss It would more then likely affect a large range of various Hz levels. In my case the hearing was normal to good all the way up to 2k Hz then rapidly drops off. All this info I got doing internet hearing tests. So here it is 4 years later and I decided to go get a hearing aid, mainly in hopes of an aid reducing tinnitus. I took a test and the audiologist said that at 2k hz it does drop off to an 80 decibel loss using air conductivity. Which to me meant sensorineural damage. But the audiologist said that when the air conduction was by passed and a bone conduction test was used that my hearing was in a somewhat normal hearing range, meaning the nerves where ok. The audiologist suggested maybe there is fluid in the ear creating a sound conduction problem. But I feel no fluid in the ear, and my hearing has not ever alternated over 4 years. So my question is, what could be wrong with the ear to cause sound waves to travel fairly well thru all the hz ranges when going thru bone and travel well using air conduction up to 2hz and then drop. Sorry if I am not explaining this well or if I am leaving out some information that would help with this question, this stuff is all very new to me. It just does not make sense to me that if something were in the ear or if there were a air gap that hearing would be normal up thru 2k hz then drop rapidly. What could explain this. Nerve damage would, but then again the bone conduction test does away with nerve damage theory because I can hear pretty well with bone conduction. Is it possible to have a air gap or something in the ear that lets good hearing in up to 2k hz and then blunts the higher frequencies. Does this sound like anything you have heard of or experienced. Thanks, Park
That’s very weird. I can’t add anything very useful i’m afraid - but do be aware that bone conduction tests are not very accurate below 500hz & above 2khz. Also, I’m sure you know this, but sound through bone conduction (by definition) travels to both cochlears, so be careful assuming your right BC scores indicate your right cochlear is functioning (relatively) normally. I’d suggest going to see an experienced ENT - they look at audiograms all the time and will surely have seen cases like yours before. They can do things like the weber test to identify whether the loss is SNL or conductive -
Please do update this thread if you find out anything else.
First I want to thank Daaave for his response to my question. I had an idea that the conductive part of the test may not be accurate. You mentioned that over 2hz may not be highly relied upon for conductive part of testing. And that statement along with my suspicion of that part of the test made me decide to go to another audioligist and get a second opinion. I did not mention the first opinion because I did not want to put any bias in the testers mind… He said his test results told him it was indeed a sensory problem and not a conductive problem.