Hearing Loss Treatment Options: What to Expect from an ENT Visit

One day, you’re fol­low­ing con­ver­sa­tions just fine, and the next, you’re piec­ing togeth­er what peo­ple said based on con­text clues and edu­cat­ed guesses. 

Maybe you’ve start­ed favor­ing one ear dur­ing phone calls, or you’ve noticed that cer­tain voic­es are hard­er to under­stand than oth­ers. These changes can feel iso­lat­ing, but here’s the thing: most hear­ing loss is treat­able or man­age­able, and fig­ur­ing out what’s caus­ing it is the first step. 

At South Bend Clin­ic, our ENT and audi­ol­o­gy spe­cial­ists work togeth­er to pin­point the cause of your hear­ing changes and help you hear clear­ly again.

When to See an ENT for Hear­ing Loss

ENTs (ear, nose, and throat spe­cial­ists) are doc­tors trained to diag­nose and treat the med­ical and struc­tur­al caus­es of hear­ing loss. While audi­ol­o­gists focus on test­ing your hear­ing and fit­ting devices like hear­ing aids, ENTs look at the big­ger pic­ture, why your hear­ing changed in the first place.

You should con­sid­er see­ing an ENT if you’re expe­ri­enc­ing per­sis­tent hear­ing changes that don’t go away on their own. This includes sud­den hear­ing loss, which can hap­pen in one or both ears and needs prompt atten­tion. Oth­er signs that war­rant an ENT vis­it include fre­quent ear infec­tions, a feel­ing of full­ness or flu­id in your ears, ring­ing in your ears (called tin­ni­tus), or dizzi­ness along­side hear­ing problems.

Also Read: When to See an ENT Spe­cial­ist: Signs You Should­n’t Ignore

What to Expect Dur­ing Your Visit

Review and Discussion

Your vis­it starts with a con­ver­sa­tion. Your ENT will ask about your symp­toms, when you first noticed hear­ing changes, whether they affect one or both ears, and if cer­tain sit­u­a­tions make them worse. 

They’ll review your health his­to­ry, includ­ing past ear infec­tions, expo­sure to noise, med­ica­tions tak­en, and any fam­i­ly his­to­ry of hear­ing loss. You’ll also dis­cuss lifestyle fac­tors, like whether you work in noisy envi­ron­ments or use ear­buds frequently.

Diag­nos­tic Testing

The next step is test­ing to mea­sure your hear­ing and iden­ti­fy poten­tial caus­es. One of the most com­mon tests is an audio­gram, where you’ll wear head­phones and respond to sounds at dif­fer­ent pitch­es and vol­umes. This hear­ing test shows which fre­quen­cies you can and can’t hear clearly.

Your ENT might also per­form tym­pa­nom­e­try, which checks how well your eardrum moves. This test helps detect flu­id behind the eardrum, eardrum per­fo­ra­tions, or prob­lems with the tiny bones in the mid­dle of your ear. The test is quick and pain­less; a small probe sits in your ear canal for just a few seconds.

Depend­ing on what your ENT sees, you may need addi­tion­al test­ing. This could include imag­ing like a CT scan or MRI if there’s con­cern about struc­tur­al issues or nerve prob­lems. South Bend Clin­ic’s audi­ol­o­gy team can also con­duct more detailed hear­ing eval­u­a­tions to pin­point exact­ly which sounds and fre­quen­cies are affected.

Results and Next Steps

After test­ing, your ENT explains what’s caus­ing your hear­ing loss and what treat­ment options fit your sit­u­a­tion. You’ll leave with either a treat­ment plan or next steps, such as fol­low-up test­ing or a hear­ing aid eval­u­a­tion with an audiologist.

Com­mon Hear­ing Loss Treatments

Treat­ment for hear­ing loss isn’t one-size-fits-all. The right approach depends on what’s caus­ing your hear­ing changes.

Med­ical or Sur­gi­cal Treatment

When your hear­ing loss is tied to a med­ical con­di­tion or struc­tur­al issue, treat­ing what’s caus­ing it can actu­al­ly bring your hear­ing back. If you have an ear infec­tion, antibi­otics usu­al­ly do the trick. For ongo­ing flu­id buildup, which is com­mon for kids, ear tubes can make a real dif­fer­ence. These small tubes help flu­id drain out and bal­ance the pres­sure in your ear, and the improve­ment in hear­ing can be pret­ty dramatic.

Some struc­tur­al prob­lems require sur­gi­cal repair. A per­fo­rat­ed eardrum can be patched, and issues with the bones in your mid­dle ear (called ossi­cles) can some­times be cor­rect­ed. Your ENT will dis­cuss whether these pro­ce­dures make sense for your situation.

Hear­ing Aids and Assis­tive Devices

For many peo­ple with hear­ing loss, hear­ing aids are the most effec­tive solu­tion. Today’s hear­ing aids are far more advanced than old­er mod­els; they’re small­er, more com­fort­able, and packed with tech­nol­o­gy that adjusts to dif­fer­ent lis­ten­ing environments.

This is where South Bend Clin­ic’s audi­ol­o­gy team real­ly shines. Audi­ol­o­gists don’t just fit you with a device and send you on your way. They take time to under­stand your lifestyle, test dif­fer­ent options, and make pre­cise adjust­ments so the hear­ing aids work well for you. 

Mod­ern hear­ing aids can con­nect via Blue­tooth to your phone, TV, or oth­er devices, allow­ing for clear­er calls and enter­tain­ment. Your audi­ol­o­gist will also pro­vide ongo­ing sup­port, fine-tun­ing set­tings as you adjust and your needs change.

Cochlear Implants and Spe­cial­ized Procedures

When hear­ing loss is severe or caused by nerve dam­age, cochlear implants might be worth explor­ing. Unlike hear­ing aids that make sounds loud­er, cochlear implants take a dif­fer­ent approach; they bypass the dam­aged parts of your ear and send sig­nals straight to your audi­to­ry nerve. 

Your ENT sur­geon will eval­u­ate whether you’re a good can­di­date and walk you through the process, includ­ing the sur­gi­cal place­ment. These options aren’t right for every­one, but for those who qual­i­fy, they can be gen­uine­ly life-changing.

A Word From Our Doctor

“For patients with nerve relat­ed hear­ing loss, inter­ven­ing ear­li­er helps pre­serve hear­ing com­pre­hen­sion in the long term. We have the team that can help you feel com­fort­able along each step of the process.”

– Dr. Michael Pfeif­fer, DO, Board Cer­ti­fied Oto­laryn­gol­o­gist (ENT) at The South Bend Clinic

If hear­ing changes feel sig­nif­i­cant or pro­gres­sive, an ENT eval­u­a­tion can help clar­i­fy the cause and next steps. Call 574−232−4800 to sched­ule an eval­u­a­tion with an Oto­laryn­gol­o­gy provider in South Bend or Elkhart.

Address­ing Under­ly­ing Conditions

Hear­ing prob­lems some­times stem from oth­er health issues. Chron­ic sinus infec­tions or aller­gies can cause ear pres­sure and flu­id buildup that affects hear­ing. Treat­ing the root cause, whether it’s aller­gies, sinus inflam­ma­tion, or recur­ring infec­tions, can restore your hear­ing with­out hear­ing aids or surgery.

The Ben­e­fit of Ear­ly Evaluation

Hear­ing loss often devel­ops grad­u­al­ly, so you might not real­ize how much you’ve been miss­ing until some­one points it out. That’s one rea­son ear­ly test­ing mat­ters. The soon­er you under­stand what’s caus­ing your hear­ing changes, the more options you have.

Ear­ly eval­u­a­tion helps pre­serve the hear­ing you still have. Untreat­ed hear­ing loss can wors­en over time, and in some cas­es, delay­ing treat­ment can make it more dif­fi­cult to restore clear hear­ing lat­er. Ear­ly care can also pre­vent com­pli­ca­tions. For exam­ple, catch­ing an infec­tion or flu­id buildup ear­ly might mean sim­ple treat­ment now instead of surgery later.

At South Bend Clin­ic, sched­ul­ing is designed to work with your life. Same-week appoint­ments are often avail­able, and if you need both an ENT eval­u­a­tion and audi­ol­o­gy test­ing, the teams can coor­di­nate sched­ul­ing so you’re not mak­ing mul­ti­ple trips.

Col­lab­o­ra­tive Hear­ing Care at South Bend Clinic

Our ENTs and audi­ol­o­gists work togeth­er on your care. No out­side refer­rals, both spe­cial­ists col­lab­o­rate to cre­ate your treat­ment plan.

Your ENT spe­cial­ist focus­es on diag­nos­ing and treat­ing med­ical con­di­tions that cause hear­ing loss, infec­tions, struc­tur­al prob­lems, nerve issues, and oth­er ear con­di­tions that require clin­i­cal inter­ven­tion. Mean­while, the audi­ol­o­gy team pro­vides detailed hear­ing assess­ments and sup­ports device-based treat­ments like hear­ing aids, includ­ing fit­ting, adjust­ments, and long-term fol­low-up care.

This col­lab­o­ra­tion means you get a com­plete pic­ture of your ear health and hear­ing func­tion. Instead of won­der­ing if you’re see­ing the right spe­cial­ist or if you need anoth­er opin­ion, you have a full team work­ing togeth­er on your behalf.

Whether your hear­ing loss is sud­den or grad­ual, caused by infec­tion or age-relat­ed changes, South Bend Clin­ic’s ENT and audi­ol­o­gy spe­cial­ists are here to help. Clear hear­ing improves not just how you com­mu­ni­cate, but your over­all qual­i­ty of life, and get­ting there starts with a sim­ple evaluation.

Ready to take the next step?

Call 574−232−4800 to sched­ule your appoint­ment with an Oto­laryn­gol­o­gy provider in South Bend or Elkhart. 

Call 574−204−6184 to sched­ule your appoint­ment with an Audi­ol­o­gy provider in South Bend.