OTOACOUSTIVE EMISSION TESTING, Surgery for Snoring, Cochlear Implants, Speech Laboratory, Audiology, ENT Doctors, ENT Hospital

Early detection of hearing loss in young children is extremely important. Children who are deaf or hard of hearing need early intervention to stimulate language and speech development. Unfortunately, traditional behavioral techniques for identifying hearing loss in infants and young children is often difficult and time consuming, and is not always reliable. Otoacoustic Emission Testing is a new and accurate method of diagnosing hearing loss in very young children.

Is your child deaf ? It is almost impossible to tell just by looking at the child. Even the mother is

sometimes unable to notice a hearing handicap in her child until it is very late. The only method to accurately diagnose a hearing loss is a test which can measure hearing independent of the child’s responses (i.e Objective Testing).

Three in a thousand children are born totally deaf and many more are born with a significant hearing loss. It is imperative that this hearing loss is diagnosed as early as possible. This is because early diagnosis followed by appropriate treatment enables the child to lead a normal life. In Western countries hearing loss of a severe degree is diagnosed accurately in 98% of children as compared to less than 20% in India. This reflects a lack of awareness and specialized equipment to accurately test the hearing at such a young age.

What are Otoacoustic Emissions ?
A normal ear generates Otoacoustic emissions, but not by an ear with a hearing loss in excess of 30 to 40 dB. The absence of Otoacoustic emissions indicates hearing loss. Measurement of Otoacoustic Emissions can therefore be a useful tool for the objective screening of children for hearing loss. Otoacoustic Emissions may be spontaneous or evoked. Spontaneous otoacoustic emissions, while interesting, so far have little diagnostic value. Evoked otoacoustic emissions, on the other hand, are applicable to the clinical evaluation of hearing.

Advantages of Otoacoustic Emissions Testing (OAE)
Several hearing screening devices using otoacoustic emissions have been developed in recent years. These devices, however, are sensitive to background noise, which can be a major constraint on their use in practice.

The KKR ENT Hospital & Research Institute is the first ENT Hospital in Tamil Nadu to obtain the latest OAE analyzer.

Using this infant screening has now become a routine and takes less than a minute to perform.
This can be performed even in a hospital or screening camp or at the outpatient department with no soundproofing facility required.
No patient compliance is required and can be performed even in 3-day-old babies.
The equipment is portable making it easy to test at various places.
This method now is considered ideal and should be made compulsory to screen all infants and children.
In addition OAE testing also finds application in the mass screening of workers in industry who are exposed to high levels of noise.

In countries like Australia it is now mandatory for all new-borns to be screened for a hearing loss. In a country like India although this may not be possible, it is important that at least every child in whom a hearing loss is suspected undergoes this kind of evaluation. Early diagnosis and correct treatment will go a long way in turning the child’s life around.