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Theamuse_Ourania t1_isi1w2f wrote

I was born with a cleft lip and palate. OHSU treated me from the time I was 12 to 20. When I was very little I had chronic ear infections as a nasty side-effect of my cleft. I was constantly in and out of surgery before I was 5 getting tubes put in and pulled out of my ears.

I've been told that having all that done is the reason why I can't hear out of one ear. I don't know how but the constant tubes caused a calcium build up around the inner ear bone that vibrates when you hear sound. The surgeons said that it's like someone encased that tiny bone in cement and that there is no current medical treatment to cure it.

Reading this article gives me hope that soon I might be cured and will be able to hear out of that ear for the first time!

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What_the_muff t1_isiayw4 wrote

That's really awful. They can make tiny prosthetic ear bones now, and even shape those that have bone spurs or incorrect shapes. But complete encasing? That would be a problem. This mechanism unfortunately doesn't really help the situation of those like you yet. The best bet would be bypassing the "external" mechanics and going with something like a cochlear implant.

Hearing research is way behind other health fields, makes me very sad since it affects so many people.

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