‘Taking care of your ears’

ELECTION time is around the corner, and there is a lot to hear on the grapevine, from campaign songs to naysayers and raw gossip.
It is probably the best time to talk about taking good care of our ears.
A couple of years ago, cotton ear buds were not something that was sold in the shops.
It was not because they were not needed either.
People have always had the need to clean their ears.
However, just like tooth picks, you simply make them yourself.
The cap of an ordinary Zampen (this pen was like the modern day BIC) was usually good enough.
If you felt a little itch in the ears, you simply removed the cap from the pen and used its tip to clean out the ear.
Nowadays, you can simply go to your local chemist and buy a small container of 50 or so ear buds.
I still see, though, people picking their ears with pen caps, keys and tooth picks.
Many patients still come into the hospital emergency room with bits of broom sticks stuck in the ear tube.
The ear is one of those organs of the body which is commonly neglected until it starts to give pain or when people have problems with hearing.
Many young ladies love to pierce their ears, and use it to enhance beauty.
Sometimes the results can be less than beautiful.
Many cases come to mind where we have had to reconstruct ear lobes because of ear piercing going wrong.
We have all seen the construction workers busy at work on the road side using a drilling machine with no ear muffler protection, with the foreman shouting instructions at the top of his voice.
Let alone the common and tragic under five child who, due to poor malnutrition, ends up with pus in the ears and deafness.
It is important to ask the question, how we can take better care of our ears so that as we get older they help us take better care of ourselves.
1. How do the ears work?
2. What are the common problems with the ears?
3. What can I do to take good care of my ears?
1. How do the ears work?
From your basic grade five biology you may remember that, like most body organs, the ear has three parts.
You will find that most body organs and systems are divided into three parts.
It seems just as an artist signs each painting as a seal of ownership, so to God has stamped each body part with the number three.
The ear has an external part, a middle part and internal part.
The external ear catches and concentrates the sound waves.
The middle ear amplifies, like a sound system, these sound waves 20-fold.
The inner ear converts these sound waves into electrical signals that are then sent to the brain.
The external ear is dish shaped and called the pinna.
Its shape helps it to concentrate the sound waves into the external tube (external auditory canal) just like a satellite dish does with radio signals.
External tube (external auditory canal) transmits these sound waves to the external ear drum.
The external auditory canal produces wax that self-cleans the canal and always keeps it clear for efficient sound transmission.
The ear drum is a thin membrane that vibrates like the skin of an African drum, which was used to transmit messages from village to village before phones were invented.
The middle ear magnifies this sound through a system of three small bones arranged in series called ossicles.
These ossicles transmit this mechanical energy to the inner ear through an internal ear drum (the round window).
The middle ear has an internal auditory tube which connects it to the throat.
This keeps the pressure in the middle and external ear the same, therefore keeping tuned like a guitar string.
The inner ears has special mechanical sensors within fluid filled circular channels called the cochlea (for sound) and the semi-circular canals (position senses).
These convert mechanical signals to electrical signals which are then transmitted by the nerve for hearing (the auditory nerve) to the Brain.
This process can be disturbed at two points the sound transmission or the conversion of mechanical signals to electric signals.
If the disturbance is at the sound transmission, this is called conduction deafness, or if at electrical stage it is called nerve deafness.
The hearing range of the Ears is between 30 to 40,000hetz.
This means the human ear cannot pick up very low or very high frequency sound waves.
Sound levels are measured in decibels, normal conversions is at about 60 decibels.
Sound waves above 100 decibels can cause ear injury.
2. What are the common problems with the Ears?
If you have flown on a plane, you will have noticed that when taking off, or landing you will experience an uncomfortable sensation in the ears.
This is called airplane ear, and is caused by pressure changes in the plane, which stretch the ear drum, pushing it inward, causing ear drum stretch, discomfort and hearing distortions.
In the past the air hostesses would pass around sweets to make you swallow and equalise the pressure between the middle and the external ear parts.
In general ear problems or diseases are best described by age.
They are the ear problems common in children, in teenagers, adults and the elderly.
The most common problem that attracts attention to the ears are ear pain and hearing loss.
In children under five, the most common cause for this is infection in the middle ear, called Otitis Media (or pus in the middle ear).
This occurs in children who are malnourished, and spreads as infection in the throat to the ear through the internal auditory canal.
Young children also tend to put foreign bodies in their ears, which may cause ear damage.
One of the common causes of persistent crying in babes is ear infection.
The maxim is if the baby is not wet and not hungry, but still crying, check the ears.
In teenage girls, most ear problems come from ear piercing.
In an attempt to wear ear rings for beauty.
When this is not done professionally it can result in scars around the Ear lobe, which can grow ulcerate and become unsightly.
For teenage boys the constant playing of music from the cell phone with ear microphones at very high decibels (>100 dbs) can lead to ear injury and conduction deafness.
Equally adults working in construction or mining with high vibration tools, with no ear protection are at risk of ear injury.
Ear wax is a common cause of deafness, itchiness as well as self-injury. In an attempt to remove wax with sharp objects, ear drum injury may occur.
With age the three bony ossicles become stiff and lose their ability to vibrate well.
They are then unable to magnify sound as well as they used too, this is the typical grandfather who is always strained to hear what you are saying. This form of   age deafness is called Presbycusis.
Persistent ringing in the ears (Tinnitus) is another symptom of ear disease.
This may be caused by drugs, commonly anti-malarial drugs or occupational/domestic noise injury
3. What can I do to take good care of my Ears?
There are a few basic things that you can do to keep your Ears healthy
these are;
1. Regular ear cleaning
2. Rest and noise avoidance
3. Report persistent ear problems
4. Restore hearing with devices
Make the habit of regularly cleaning your ears with a soft cotton bud.
If the wax is hard, buy wax ear drop softener from your local chemist and instil them in the ear.
Dilute vinegar or boric acid drops can be used to keep the external canal clean.
If wax persists, go to the clinic and have it washed out.
Do not keep your ears exposed to loud music for prolonged periods of time.
This can destroy you hearing and your future to the ear.
The music is not as important as your ears.
If you work in a construction industry use ear mufflers to protect your ears.
Give yourself ear holidays, by going away for your annual leave to more rural parts of the country to rest your ears from the common town noises.
Discourage children from putting any objects in their ears.
Avoid buying toys for children below three years with small detachable pieces.
Most toys will have labels about the age of the child who can play with the particular toy.
Breast feeding children for as long as possible, reduces the risk of malnutrition and Ear infection.
Encourage the breast feeding of your children, nieces and nephews up to at least two years of age.
If you have ear pain, ear discharge, tinnitus or loss of balance, visit your local clinic as quickly as possible.
If you suffer from deafness or increasing deafness, visit an audiologist to characterise the type of deafness.
Some help can be given by the use of hearing aids for conduction deafness and Implants for nerve deafness.