Unilateral deafness?

Question

My 4 yr. old son went to the pediatrician last Mon. for his check up and to get his physical and shots to start kindergarten this fall. When they did the hearing test, he only heard one out of ten sounds in his right ear. The left ear was fine. When the dr. examined him, everything looked fine--no infection, wax buildup,etc. He had a hearing test at his preschool two yrs ago and was fine. Now I'm wondering if he had hearing loss then that they didn't detect in the basic screening at preschool or if it is something that has developed recently. We have an appt. with an audiologist for Mon. afternoon to have another hearing test and if needed additional tests. I'm just worried about what might be wrong. Anyone have any ideas about what tests other than the hearing tests they may do? What can they do, if anything, if he has lost hearing in that ear?

Answer 1

One of my sons repeatedly failed hearing tests although passed his newborn screening.  We did have an ABR done (auditory brain stem response).  He was sedated, I was with him.  They had electrode probes on his head and he was hooked up to a computer for 2 hours.  They suspected auditory neuropathy, and in extreme cases did a cochlear implant.  The audiologist at a regular screening suggested he needed to be looked at further and she did the ABR at the hospital.  Should it have come back that he had auditory neuropathy my son would have gone to a specialist.  We were told that he has a eustacian tube dysfunction were seen by an ENT and nothing else further.

Answer 2

They may do the test where they blow a puff of air into the ear to see if the eardrum vibrates.  They did this with my son and it did not vibrate. He had hearing loss as well and would talk really loud and ask us to repeat everything.  He ended up having to have tubes put in his ears because of fluid build up (with no infection).  I hope it is nothing serious.

Answer 3

It depends. He might go deaf. But hopefully it's not anything serious.