Millions of years ago, the world was a lot different. The long-necked Diplacusis roamed this volcano-laden landscape. Thanks to its really long neck and tail, Diplacusis was so large that it was afraid of no predator.
Actually, the long-necked dinosaur from the Jurassic Period is called Diplodocus. When you’re hearing two sounds at the same time, that’s a hearing condition known as diplacusis.
While it’s not a “horrible lizard,” in many ways diplacusis can be a menace on its own, causing a hearing experience that feels bewildering and out of sorts (often making communication challenging or impossible).
Maybe you’ve been hearing some unusual things
Usually, we think of hearing loss as our hearing getting muted or quiet over time. Over time, the story goes, we simply hear less and less. But sometimes, hearing loss can manifest in some peculiar ways. Diplacusis is one of the weirder, and also more frustrating, of these hearing problems.
Diplacusis, what is it?
Exactly what is diplacusis? Diplacusis is a medical name that means, basically, “double hearing”. Typically, your brain takes information from the right ear and information from the left ear and marries them harmoniously into a single sound. This combined sound is what you hear. Your eyes are doing the same thing. You will see slightly different images if you cover each eye one at a time. Your ears are the same, it’s just that typically, you don’t notice it.
Diplacusis occurs when the hearing abilities of your ears vary so significantly that your brain can no longer combine them, at least not very well. You can develop diplacusis due to hearing loss in one ear (called monaural diplacusis) or both ears (binaural diplacusis).
Diplacusis comes in two types
Diplacusis doesn’t impact everybody in the same way. Normally, though, individuals will experience one of the following two types of diplacusis:
- Diplacusis dysharmonica: This type of diplacusis happens when the pitch of the right ear and the pitch of the left ear seem off. So when your grandchildren talk to you, the pitch of their voice will sound distorted. Perhaps your right ear thinks the sound is low-pitched and your left ear hears the sound as high-pitched. This can make those sounds hard to understand.
- Diplacusis echoica: With this, what you hear will sound off because your brain receives the sound from each ear out of sync with the other rather than hearing two different pitches. Artifacts like echoes can be the result. This can also cause challenges in terms of understanding speech.
Symptoms of diplacusis
The symptoms of diplacusis can include:
- Hearing that seems off (in pitch).
- Off timing hearing
- Phantom echoes
The condition of double vision may be a helpful comparison: It’s usually a symptom of something else, but it can produce some of its own symptoms. (In other words, it’s the effect, not the cause.) Diplacusis, in these circumstances, is most likely a symptom of hearing loss. So your best strategy would be to make an appointment with us for a hearing test.
What are the causes diplacusis?
In a very basic sense (and maybe not surprisingly), the causes of diplacusis align rather nicely with the causes of hearing loss. But you may experience diplacusis for several specific reasons:
- Earwax: Your hearing can be affected by an earwax blockage. That earwax obstruction can trigger diplacusis.
- Your ears have damage related to noise: If you’ve experienced enough loud noises to damage your hearing, it’s possible that the same damage has brought about hearing loss, and as a result, diplacusis.
- An infection: Ear infections, sinus infections, or even just plain old allergies can cause your ear canal to swell. This inflammation, while a typical response, can impact the way sound travels through your inner ear and to your brain.
- A tumor: Diplacusis can, in rare situations, be caused by a tumor in your ear canal. Don’t panic! They’re normally benign. But you should still speak with us about it.
As you can see, diplacusis and hearing loss have many of the same typical causes. Which means that if you’re experiencing diplacusis, it’s a good bet something is interfering with your ability to hear. So you should definitely come in and talk to us.
How is diplacusis treated?
Depending on the root cause, there are several possible treatments. If you have a blockage, treating your diplacusis will center around clearing it out. But irreversible sensorineural hearing loss is more often the cause. Here are a few treatment options if that’s the situation:
- Hearing aids: The right set of hearing aids can equalize how your ears hear again. This means that the symptoms of diplacusis will most likely disappear. It’s essential to get the right settings on your hearing aids and you’ll need to have us help you with that.
- Cochlear implant: A cochlear implant might be the only way of dealing with diplacusis if the root cause is profound hearing loss.
A hearing test is the first step to getting it all figured out. Think about it like this: a hearing assessment will be able to establish what type of hearing loss is at the root of your diplacusis (and, to be fair, you may not even recognize it as diplacusis, you may just think stuff sounds weird these days). We have really sensitive hearing tests nowadays and any inconsistencies with how your ears are hearing the world will be found.
Hearing well is more fun than not
Getting the appropriate treatment for your diplacusis, whether that’s a hearing aid or some other treatment option, means you’ll be more capable of participating in your daily life. Conversations will be easier. It will be easier to communicate with your family.
So there will be no diplacusis symptoms getting in the way of your ability to hear your grandkids telling you all about the Diplodocus.
If you think you have diplacusis and want to have it checked, give us a call for an appointment.