Sound of silence

Nemeth, 48, was puzzled by the suddenness of his hearing loss but attributed it to accumulated earwax, a problem he had experienced in the past. He flushed out the ear with hot water, but his hearing didn’t improve. So he went to Sanford North Walk-in Clinic thinking a doctor could better clean the wax out of his ear.

Instead, he learned he had sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSHL), a condition that can cause permanent deafness.

Dr. Thomas Coombe, a Sanford Health board-certified ENT doctor, said SSHL is usually due to a virus that attacks the nerve and causes nerve dysfunction.

“Most often, these patients come in complaining of a full feeling in the ear, ringing in the ear or hearing loss,” Dr. Coombe said. “Rarely, they may also experience some unsteadiness. We typically see several patients in a fairly short time with SSHL and then may not see any for a long time, which supports the theory that it’s likely caused by a virus.”

Nemeth says he’d prepared himself for a possible permanent hearing loss, and he really appreciates hearing well again. Good hearing plays an important role in many aspects of his life: in his role as a husband and selfdescribed “late-in-life” father who loves playing with his 5-year-old son, in his job as a chemist at the North Dakota Department of Health and on the ice rink where he curls three to four times a week.

“In curling, there’s a lot of communication on the ice with the sweepers communicating back and forth with each other and the person calling the game from the house, so it would be difficult to keep playing if I couldn’t hear well,” Nemeth said.

Approximately 4,000 Americans are diagnosed with SSHL each year. Oral medications or steroid injections are the common treatment, Dr. Coombe said, adding that the longer it takes for hearing to return, the less likely it is the patient will experience complete healing.

“Don’t mess around with sudden hearing loss,” Dr. Ness said. “Make an appointment with your primary care doctor right away if you experience sudden, unexplained hearing loss. Even if it does end up just being an ear infection, you’re better off not having taken a chance on losing your hearing permanently.”