Since the inner ear is adult-sized from birth, pediatric and adult patients often have overlapping issues, such as hearing loss, chronic ear infections or a hole in the ear drum. However, because children often have a hard time communicating or even understanding their hearing loss, our specialists and audiologists offer hearing tests and practices specifically geared to identifying issues in patients as young as newborns.
- Atresia of the ear and ear canal
- Chronic suppurative otitis media
- Otitis media with effusion
- Tympanic membrane perforation
As your child may not be able to identify hearing loss, you may be the first to notice symptoms, such as not responding when called or trouble listening in school. If you are concerned about your child’s hearing start by making an appointment for a hearing test, which can determine if your child has hearing loss.
Diagnosis and Treatment
Along with the use of hearing aids, we offer surgical options for pediatric patients which can restore hearing and proper function. Before deciding on a course of treatment, our team, including you and your child, will work to develop a plan that best fits your child’s needs, age, development and, if present, other medical conditions.
Should a newborn be born deaf or with impaired hearing, we offer a lifelong network of support through our multidisciplinary approach. Patients as young as one year of age are eligible to receive cochlear implants, and Baha and Sophono implants are available for the treatment of specific conditions, such as single sided deafness or the conductive hearing loss associated with ear canal atresia. We will also collaborate with our audiologists, speech pathologists, ophthalmologists and other disciplines to ensure that your child is given all the tools necessary to aid in their continued development.
When treating other conditions present from birth, such as microtia and atresia, we are a leader in the field. As a result of a multidisciplinary collaboration with Bruce Bauer, MD, pediatric plastic surgeon and chief of our Plastic Surgery department, children born without the outer ear, known as microtia, can have ears surgically reconstructed. The addition of Sophono implants, put in place by fellowship-trained neurotologist Michael Shinners, MD, during the same procedure, lessens the amount of surgeries patients undergo before hearing is restored, making recovery quicker and decreasing the risk of delayed development.
For More Information
For more information or to schedule an appointment, please call 847.504.3300.