cholesteatoma

[logan_michelle]

when i was 18, (im 22 now) i was diagnosed with a cholesteatoma in my right ear. i was told then that i needed a surgery for it (what my medical records from the doctor say "two-staged, right sided tympanomastoidectomy")

i never got the surgery done, and yes i do still have pain and all that jazz in the same ear. my question is since it has been 3-4 years since i was diagnosed with it, will i still need the same surgery? also, will the problem with my ear effect my mouth (teeth, gums, jaw pain ect)? or is that a whole new problem i happen to have...  

there are so many more questions about all this that i want to ask, but i will start with this. thank you  ahead of time to anyone that answers!

[ENTMD]

You need to consider this a serious problem and risk to your hearing.  Cholesteatomas don't just go away.  You still have yours.  What they do is grow, and it is likely safe to assume that yours is larger today than it was a few years ago.  As they grow, they erode the bone around them.  The larger it gets, the more extensive the surgery may need to be.  Your new problems may indeed be related to the cholesteatoma.  I would strongly urge you to reconnec with an ENT doc and get going on this!

Thanks for your story, becradiology.  Tubes are often used to mitigate retracted ear drums/Eustachian tube dysfunction, which, I would imagine, is what they thought your some had.  A congenital cholesteatoma is a rather uncommon entity and it looks like they missed it (initially).

[becradiology]

My 14 year old son has been seeing ENTs all his life.  They all would put tubes in his ears, with no benift to him.  I finally took him to another ENT.  He was diagnost with a congenital cholesteatoma.  It had eaten through all the small bones and skull in his ear. They set him up for surg. The doctor removed all the gunck in his ears and mastoids and replaced it with a type of man made bone.  He spent one night in the hospital and the next day he went with us out to eat.  He did great!  He can't hear very much with that ear but next month the ENT is going replace the 3 small bones.  This will be done as OP on friday and he will return to school on monday.  He would recomened the surg.  He feel so much better.