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Hearing & tinnitus
Bringing sound back
How hearing loss is measured, when a cochlear implant or BAHA helps, and how a rare cause of pulsing in the ear can be found and treated.
Reading your hearing test
The audiogram, explained
Pitch runs left to right, from low to high. Loudness runs top to bottom: the lower the marks, the louder a sound must be before you hear it. Where your marks fall helps decide which treatment fits.
- Normal0–25 dB
No treatment needed. A child with speech delay may still need a full ear check.
- Mild to moderate26–55 dB
Often caused by fluid, a hole in the eardrum or otosclerosis, which surgery can fix. If the inner ear is affected, hearing aids usually help.
- Moderately severe56–70 dB
Powerful hearing aids. A BAHA is an option when the ear cannot take a normal hearing aid.
- Severe to profound71 dB and beyond
When hearing aids no longer give clear speech, a cochlear implant is considered.
Cochlear implants
For children born deaf, and adults who lost their hearing
A cochlear implant turns sound into tiny electrical signals that stimulate the hearing nerve directly, bypassing the damaged inner ear.
- Children: the earlier the implant, the better speech and language develop. Most children go on to mainstream school.
- Adults and older people: age alone is not a barrier. Hearing again helps people keep working, talk with family and stay connected.
- Nerve response testing in theatre confirms the implant is working before surgery ends.
- Device programming and auditory-verbal therapy with audiologists and speech therapists afterwards.
BAHA
Bone-anchored hearing aid
A small titanium implant behind the ear carries sound through the bone to the inner ear. It suits people born without an ear canal, people with chronically discharging ears, and people deaf in one ear. Usually a day-care procedure.
Stapedotomy
For otosclerosis
In otosclerosis the smallest bone in the body, the stapes, becomes stuck. A tiny opening and a micro-piston let sound pass again, often bringing hearing close to normal.
Urgent
Sudden hearing loss
Hearing that drops suddenly in one ear, often noticed on waking, is an emergency. See an ENT doctor within days, not weeks. Early treatment gives the best chance of recovery.
Pulsatile tinnitus · Times of India, 6 January 2026
When the sound in your ear keeps time with your heartbeat
Pulsatile tinnitus is a rhythmic whooshing or humming that matches the pulse. Unlike ordinary ringing in the ears, it often has a physical cause that a careful scan can find.
A 35-year-old woman had lived with this sound for four years. It kept her awake, and several consultations had not found the cause. Dr. Srivastava's team found a defect in the bone covering the sigmoid sinus, a large vein behind the ear, and rebuilt that wall in a three-hour operation. The noise stopped after surgery and her sleep improved over the following weeks.
“Many patients are told to live with the condition, but pulsatile tinnitus often has a treatable cause.”Read the news report
How the operation works
- OpeningA small opening is made in the bone behind the ear.
- Finding the defectThe thin or missing patch of bone over the vein is located.
- RebuildingThe wall is rebuilt with layers of tissue and bone cement.
- Going homeMost patients stay one night and go home the next day.
Presented to otologists
She presented her work on sigmoid sinus anomalies and their three surgical types at ISOCON 2026, the national conference of the Indian Society of Otology, in Amritsar.
Have a hearing test or scan?
Email it for an opinion on what can be done, or call the ENT coordinator.