Surfers's ear. Exostoces. Surgery

[burgundyben]

I suffer from high frequency hearing loss/tinnitus and wear tiny "in-ear" aids. Cold weather/wind both gives me chilblains on my ears and drastically reduces battery life. I wear warm ear covering hats out of doors most of the time, both walking and sailing. My son surfs all year round (Thurso/Orkney!) and always wears a hood. He's had ear problems once or twice though not clearly related to temperature.

Do the hearing aids help with the tinnitus?

 

[Leighb]

Do the hearing aids help with the tinnitus?

Certainly make no difference to mine. Had tinnitus for 30 years or so, gradual onset deafness last few years which aids do help, but tinnitus always present.

 

[[70521]]

Do the hearing aids help with the tinnitus?

None whatsoever. Tinnitus is false signals from the ear.

Add some hyperacusis and life gets exciting!

 

[FairweatherDave]

Surfers ear will not normally cause deafness.

Think of the ear canal as a long cave with stalactites and stalagmites coming out into the space. The obstructions can impede wax coming out but will not stop sound waves going through the canal to the end ie eardrum.
Surfers ear can look very impressive if you can get a peek.

True, which is why when surgery was mentioned a few years ago I could not see the point. I wasn't getting recurrent ear problems. And it is not connected to the age related deafness. But recently things have been worse and the ear got completely blocked. Normal oil drops and syringing / microsuction not clearing the problem. Time to see if ENT think an operation required. Meanwhile from now on windsurfing I'll be using earplugs. Shame I didn't start a while back.

Meanwhile on the subject of tinnitus what my hearing aid guy said was they programme the modern hearing aids to reduce the tinnitus, along with boosting whatever frequencies you need. I still get the tinnitus but maybe it is less. Had to google hyperacusis but I get that too from time to time. Fun times.