A patient will need a stapedectomy if he has otosclerosis. It is diagnosed by healthcare providers who specialize in hearing or an ENT specialist. The doctor may conduct hearing tests that measure hearing sensitivity and middle-ear sound conduction. Sometimes, imaging tests such as a CT scan are also used to diagnose otosclerosis.
Treatment
Diagnosis
Procedure
If the otosclerosis is mild, then the doctor will test your hearing regularly. The doctor will also recommend you to get the hearing aid. Some of the doctors may treat otosclerosis with sodium fluoride which is a dietary supplement. But this doesn’t work. If your hearing loss gets serious, the doctor will recommend the surgery called stapedectomy. With the procedure, the surgeon will put a device in the middle ear which moves the stuck stapes bones, which will let the sound waves to travel to the inner ear, so you will hear better. The stapedectomy can help some people but like all types of surgery, there are some risks involved. In rare cases, it can make the hearing worse. If you have otosclerosis in both ears, the surgeon will operate on one ear at a time. You will have to wait for six months after the first one ear is treated, to get treated on the second ear.