Chapter 08: Basic Hearing Disorders

A visible deformity of the ear, RF #1, must be occlude the ear canal to prevent testing. Some deformities will not require that you refer your patient to a PCP [primary care physician] or to and ENT.

If you recognize a non-occlusive deformity which causes pain or discomfort, if the pain isn’t described as ‘too bad,’ you may continue with testing and fitting.

If you can see the tympanic membrane, you can test for hearing loss, no matter what the other conditions dictate.

If one ear canal is occluded but the other is half full of cerumen, you can test the un-occluded ear.

Cerumen is always brown and soft.

If you notice a slight opening in an otherwise impacted ear canal, you can still test for hearing loss.

Visible evidence of cerumen impaction or significant accumulation or lodged foreign body within the ear canal includes q-tips, cotton, and small creatures.

A patient walks into your clinic complaining of a bug that flew into one ear. You see it and can safely remove it. Your advice to the person will be:

Otorrhea is _____.

‘History of active drainage (otorrhea) within 90 days’ is RF #3 which leads to a medical referral.

The sudden onset of hearing loss is a true medical emergency which requires immediate attention by an ENT.

A ‘History of sudden onset of hearing loss within 90 days’ is determined by:

Acute or chronic dizziness can result from:

It is only persistent and lasting dizziness which requires a referral.

The Wong-Baker pain scale is used to determine whether pain or discomfort is bad enough to require a medical referral.

Your patient may say, “It’s okay. I’m used to the pain. I just want to get help with my hearing.” Your conflict of whether to test or not, if there is any, is best described by the following:

If you see ear wax [cerumen] that obstructs the ear canal, you can only remove it if the following are true.

The RF #8 states: A gap of more than 15 dB between air and bone conduction at 500 Hz, 1000 Hz, and 2000 Hz requires a medical referral. This is the only red flag which necessitates a _____ to determine whether a medical referral is required. (check all that apply)

The ‘Onset of monaural (one ear) hearing loss of a duration of 90 days or less’ could lead to: (check all that apply)

Otitis is defined as:

Otitis externa is an:

Occlusion of the ear canal is an outer ear disorder.

Cholesteatoma is an abnormal skin growth in the outer/middle ear which develops sacs or cysts that can eventually destroy the ossicular chain.

One example of outer ear deformation is the cauliflower ear.

A collapsed ear canal:

Sclerosis is defined as the _____ of tissue.

Otosclerosis is defined as the _____ of the ear.

Otosclerosis is indicated as a _____ hearing loss through air and bone conduction testing. (check all that apply)

An example of an inner ear disorder is:

The cranial nerve VIII tumor is:

The location of the hearing disorder known as presbycusis is in the:

It is widely believed that noise, medications, and age create the disorder known as presbycusis.

Ototoxins are drugs which:

An example of acoustic assault is:

Inner and outer hair cells can be damaged or destroyed by being near an acoustic assault (chronic noise, gun shot, rock concert).

Noise induced HL is also called:

Both ears are usually involved in Meniere’s Disease.

Vertigo is:

Tinnitus is:

SNHL is another general term for:

Tinnitus can be:

Conductive HL originates:

Treatment options for CHL include:

Sensorineural HL originates in the:

_____ % of the population of the US have Sensorineural HL.

The level of loss in persons with SNHL is usually less than:

Mixed HL has two components. They are:

Rx for mixed hearing loss includes:

SNHL is: