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COLD WEATHER AND HEARING LOSS
Hearing Instrument Specialist Byron Campisi, of Byron’s Hudson Valley Hearing, discusses the connection between cold weather and hearing loss
As I’m sure you know -- and have felt by now, cold weather season is here. The next few months are going to be filled with chilly days and nights, and while we may prefer the weather get warmer, the reality is that we’ll be dealing with cold temperatures for quite a while.
Temperatures dropping isn’t just a concern for your home furnace, or a question of how heavy a coat you should wear outside. Very cold weather can sometimes cause actual, physical changes to the inside of your ear, leading to concerns such as dizziness, vertigo, ringing in the ears, ear pain, or even hearing loss.
Research has shown that colder temperatures can be linked to a higher chance of developing ringing in the ears. This is because of a condition known as exostosis, which you may have heard of under the more common name of ‘surfer’s ear’. Exostosis is, in essence, a bony growth inside the ear spurred on by cold weather. As temperatures drop, the bone surrounding the ear canal tends to naturally thicken as a way to protect the sensitive inner ear from cold outdoor temperatures. This thickening of the bone has several unwanted side effects, however, including shrinking the size of your ear canal. This shrinking can cause hearing loss, as sound waves have less room to travel into the ear. The growth can also cause the ear to experience trouble naturally expelling ear wax, causing infections as water and other natural fluids get stuck inside the ear canal. If you’ve had multiple ear infections, especially in cold weather seasons, that’s a sign and symptom of exostosis. Even if you don’t lose some of your ability to hear, you may feel some degree of ear pain as the bone hardens during colder months. If this is the case, there are treatment options for exostosis -- most commonly a surgical procedure known as a canaloplasty.
Outside of exostosis, there can be other ear issues caused by extreme cold weather. Ear wax blockage is one of them. Cold air and temperatures can cause the earwax that your ears naturally produce to harden, causing them to act in the same way that your ear bone does during exostosis. Hardened earwax has a lot of the same symptoms as exostosis -- that feeling of stuffiness, the earache, the loss of hearing. This is especially concerning given that people who use hearing instruments are at a higher risk of hardened earwax due to the ear constantly producing more wax when a ‘foreign object’
(i.e. your hearing aid) is placed inside. Thankfully, this is much easier to treat. Gentle techniques, like the kind recommended by head and neck surgeons, can help minimize your risk of developing hardened earwax, and may be an option for you to consider. If you do decide to remove earwax from your own ears, please be cautious. Excessive earwax removal techniques can actually damage your ears and turn what was once a temporary problem into something significantly more serious. If you think you have excessive ear wax, I would suggest calling a hearing health professional -- such as the ones as my office -- for a consultation and in-office wax removal. The process is quicker, easier, and safer than you might think.