Every day we get referrals from physicians all over the city, and even some from outside the city, because a patient complains of pain in their ears, a stuffed up feeling in their ears, ringing in their ears, and many other issues. Each of these is unique and each can have any number of causes. To begin solving some of these issues, the ears have to be checked and the first step was to see the family doctor. Good. Sometimes your doctor can see the problem right away and when they do they can create a treatment plan to fix problem.
But sometimes the problem is not within their scope, in which case they will often refer the patient to someone who specializes in such problems, more often than not an Otologist or Otolaryngologist, (or Oto-naso-laryngologist, all of which are collectively called ENT’s or Ear Nose and Throat specialists). If the problem is with the ear, an ENT will often request a hearing test to be performed, in fact, many family physicians save time by sending their patients to us ahead of an ENT visit. Often the waiting lists for ENT’s is long, as long as 3 or 4 months, sometimes even longer, so if there is some form of emergency, it’s good to know any information the hearing test can give ahead of time. This way if an ER visit is more appropriate, it can be recommended. And there is a vast amount of information we can get from performing the standard hearing tests. Even when the hearing is measuring normally we can often use this information to rule out some very serious conditions. It does more than tell us that you may need a hearing aid.
Despite this, people often call with very little notice to cancel such appointments because they feel that the hearing is fine and they feel a hearing test is unnecessary and unrelated to their problem. One frequent example that we see are people who have issues with dizziness and vertigo, who think that being off balance has nothing to do with hearing. The reality is that the inner ear houses two structures that share fluid, space and nerve endings; The cochlea, which is where all the nerves that receive auditory signals are housed, and the semicircular canals which are responsible for the brains spatial representation, (i.e. they keep us upright and let us know when we make turns or, more generally, when our position changes). The two structures are directly connected and share information with each other. A small issue with one can lead to issues in the other. Why not rule out the serious stuff with a simple set of tests, rather than wait until the problem gets worse?
This is one example, Tinnitus is another, but I could tell you about many more. A hearing test does a lot more than simply assess the hearing; it can tell us about the health of the outer, middle and inner ear, and in some cases it can rule out some very serious issues. But people mistake our clinic for being a simply a retail outlet – we’re not. We are part of the broader healthcare network and physicians rely on the information we give them to help treat your problem and keep your health at its optimum.