Sudden Hearing Loss

[4pepper4]

My father is 83 yrs old, in excellent health (only takes 40mg of simvastatin a day). While in the the Navy he was responsibilty for overseeing the cannons on ship, and as a result has had some hearing loss ever since. About 20 yrs ago he finally got hearing aids and was able to hear much better. But then about 6 mos ago he got up one morning and could not hear at all in his left ear. He went to the doctor right away and was told that he had "sudden hearing loss". The doctor said that sometimes within a month or so, the hearing comes back, but his did not. He still has some hearing in his right ear & and has had another hearing aid made to try to compensate for the right hear, but still does not hear much of anything anymore. It has become extremely stressful for him, to say the least. In fact, last week he learned that he has developed a case of shingles. He is a very intelligent, alert, active man. But his doctor has not given him much hope of hearing again, he said the doctor made it sound like it would be a waste of money to do surgery at his age. Your opinion?? Thank you

[chiarigirl11]

sometimes in older people, they just lose there hearing for no apparent reason.

[Wear/a/Jimmy]

There are no surgical options to cure your fathers situation.

That said, he should be medically treated or an attempt should be mad to do so. Google Sudden Sensory Neural Hearing loss treatment for more information on that.

The remaining options (after being medicated)

1) New Hearing aids to address the loss
2) TransEar (google that)
3) BAHA (bone anchored hearing aid) google that (surgical implant of a device/not very invasive)
4) Cochlear Implant - invasive surger of a device