Hearing Blues
Chandigarh: It is festival season and doctors are wary. This is when they witness a spurt in cases involving hearing troubles, with several resulting in permanent hearing loss.
Noise, they say, is the main culprit. The hearing ability of people in the city is fast depleting, with ENT specialists examining more and more such in OPDs. Every fortnight, the community health centre, Sector 22 alone receives four cases of ear-drum rupture.
In 90 per cent cases, fights - domestic and street - are the cause and patients have been slapped or punched hard. Many married women are at the receiving end and suffer traumatic perforation (ear-drum damage) due to abuse, say doctors.
Young men, who enter into violent brawls and end up hitting each other, are equally vulnerable. “In cases of ear-drum rupture, the success of treatment depends on the ferocity of attack on the face or ear. A slap can cause chronic perforation which then leads to permanent hearing loss,” says Dr Rajesh Dhir, member of the expert committee implementing the National Programme on Prevention and Control of Deafness (NPPCD) in Chandigarh. Chandigarh is one of the 10 states where this pilot project is being run to prevent hearing losses. India has 63 million deaf.
Dr Dhir also examines four cases of ear-drum damage in his OPD every fortnight. “Similar numbers must be reporting to other hospital OPDs. This problem is becoming common due to fights and noise exposures,” he says, adding that exposure to high noise levels is another big reason behind deafness. Such damage may take years to show.
Nine-hour continuous exposure to 90 decibels is known to deplete hearing ability. Vacuum bombs and fire crackers used during Diwali produce about 140 decibel noise, which can cause irreversible hearing loss“Everyone should avoid high-vacuum bombs, loud music in discotheques and at weddings. This noise causes sensory neural loss which can’t be reversed. Hearing aid is the only answer for such patients,” Dr Dhir cautioned, adding that anyone feeling a lasting ringing sensation in the ears, following exposure to noise should see a doctor.
What Docs Say
* Don’t clean the ear canal - it will clean itself
* Don’t put anything in the ear canal
* Avoid loud noise; noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is a major cause of deafness
* Look out for family history of deafness
* Discharging ear among children is not normal
Source: TNS