MUSIC TO YOUR EARS
The ear is the anatomical organ that detects sound. It also plays a major role in the sense of balance and body position.

The word "ear" may be used correctly to describe the entire organ or just the visible portion. We humans have a pair of ears, placed on opposite sides of the head. This placement aids in the ability to determine from where sounds are coming.

EAR CANAL PROBLEMS
Ear canal injuries can come from explosives, and trauma from placement of foreign bodies into the ear. The ear canal is most often self-traumatized from efforts at ear cleaning. The glands make cerumen (also called ear wax). The skin of the bony canal is among the most delicate skin in the human body. A slender object used to blindly clean cerumen out of the ear often results instead with the wax being pushed in, and contact with the thin skin of the bony canal is likely to lead to laceration and bleeding.

MIDDLE EAR TRAUMA
Middle ear trauma most often comes from blast injuries and insertion of foreign objects into the ear. While mild trauma can heal on its own, many middle ear conditions require surgery. And others, such as sensory neural hearing loss, cannot be corrected.

INNER EAR TRAUMA
There are two principal damage mechanisms to the inner ear in industrialized society, and both injure hair cells. The first is exposure to elevated sound levels (noise trauma), and the second is exposure to Antibiotics, drugs and other substances (ototoxicity).

Symptoms of ototoxicity include partial or profound hearing loss, vertigo, and tinnitus.

In 1972 the U.S. EPA told Congress that at least 34 million people were exposed to sound levels on a daily basis that are likely to lead to significant hearing loss.

Today, worldwide implication for industrialized countries would place this exposed population in the hundreds of millions. But you don’t hear much on the evening news about drug-induced hearing loss, do you?