Have Had Cold And Shingles. Have Trouble In Hearing From One Ear. What Can Be Done?

Posted on Tue, 2 Jul 2013

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Tue, 2 Jul 2013 Answered on

Tue, 23 Jul 2013 Last reviewed on

Question : I have had a cold and shingles. Now i am having trouble hearing ourt of one ear and have noticed while on a phone in my left they sound like a robot and my right ear sounds fine? Please advise

Answered by Dr. Sumit Bhatti (3 hours later)

Hi,

Thank you for your query.

1. Get your ear drums examined and get the following hearing tests done:
a. Pure Tone Audiometry (PTA)
b. Tympanometry (Impedance Audiometry)
c. Speech Discrimination Score (SDS) if there is a sensorineural or mixed deafness.

2. If you have only a Conductive Hearing Loss (CHL) then routine treatment for a cold will settle the condition.

3. If you have a Sensorineural Hearing Loss ( SSHNL) due to the shingles with distorted hearing, then the treatment window is only 4-6 weeks. SSHNL is described as a hearing loss greater than 20-30 dB (Sensorineural) in 3 contigious speech frequencies. Shingles is usually manifest in times of great stress such as cancer, chemotherapy as in your case. It is a reactivation of a dormant Chickenpox virus from a childhood infection.

4. You may follow up here with your test results for further treatment options.

Regards

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Prasad