The world was rather different millions of years ago. The long-necked Diplacusis wandered this volcano-laden landscape. Thanks to its really long neck and tail, Diplacusis was so big that it feared no predator.
Actually, the long-necked dinosaur from the Jurassic Period is called Diplodocus. When you’re hearing two sounds simultaneously, 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, leading to a hearing experience that feels bewildering and out of sorts (frequently making communication difficult or impossible).
Perhaps your hearing has been a bit strange lately
Typically, we think of hearing loss as our hearing becoming muted or quiet over time. According to this notion, over time, we simply hear less and less. But in some cases, hearing loss can manifest in some peculiar ways. One of the most interesting (or, possibly, frustrating) such manifestations is a condition called diplacusis.
What is diplacusis?
So, what’s diplacusis? The meaning of the medical name diplacusis is simply “double hearing”. Normally, your brain takes information from the right ear and information from the left ear and combines them harmoniously into one sound. That’s what you hear. The same thing occurs with your eyes. 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 never notice it.
When your brain can’t effectively merge the two sounds from your ears because they are too different, you have this condition of diplacusis. You can experience diplacusis because of the hearing loss in one ear (called monaural diplacusis) or both ears (binaural diplacusis).
Diplacusis comes in two kinds
Diplacusis doesn’t affect everyone in the same way. Normally, though, individuals will experience one of the following two forms of diplacusis:
- 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 instead of hearing two different pitches. Artifacts similar to echoes can be the outcome. This can also cause difficulty with regard to understanding speech.
- Diplacusis dysharmonica: This type of diplacusis occurs when the pitch of the right ear and the pitch of the left ear are hearing sound as two different pitches. So when your grandkids speak with you, the pitch of their voice will sound distorted. Maybe your right ear hears the sound as low-pitched and your left ear thinks the sound is high-pitched. Those sounds can be difficult to understand consequently.
Symptoms of diplacusis
The symptoms of diplacusis can include:
- Hearing that seems off (in timing).
- Off pitch hearing
- Phantom echoes
The condition of double vision may be a useful comparison: Yes, it can develop some symptoms on its own, but it’s usually itself a symptom of something else. (In other words, it’s the effect, not the cause.) In these circumstances, diplacusis is almost always a symptom of hearing loss (either in one ear or in both ears). Consequently, if you experience diplacusis, you should probably make an appointment with a hearing specialist.
What causes diplacusis?
In a very general sense (and perhaps not surprisingly), the causes of diplacusis line up quite well with the causes of hearing loss. But you may develop diplacusis for numerous particular reasons:
- An infection: Swelling of your ear canal can be the result of an ear infection, sinus infection, or even allergies. This inflammation, while a natural response, can impact the way sound travels through your inner ear and to your brain.
- Earwax: Your hearing can be impacted by an earwax blockage. That earwax blockage can cause diplacusis.
- Your ears have damage related to noise: If you’ve experienced enough loud noises to damage your hearing, it’s feasible that the same damage has resulted in hearing loss, and as a result, diplacusis.
- A tumor: Diplacusis can, in rare instances, be the result of a tumor in your ear canal. Don’t panic! They’re usually benign. But you still should talk to us about it.
As you can see, diplacusis and hearing loss have many of the same common causes. Which means that if you’re experiencing diplacusis, it’s a good bet something is impeding your ability to hear. So you should definitely come in and talk to us.
How is diplacusis treated?
Depending on the main cause, there are several possible treatments. If you have a blockage, treating your diplacusis will focus on 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 correct set of hearing aids can neutralize how your ears hear again. Your diplacusis symptoms will gradually fade when you benefit from hearing aids. It’s essential to get the proper settings on your hearing aids and you’ll want to have us help you with that.
- Cochlear implant: A cochlear implant might be the only way of managing diplacusis if the root cause is profound hearing loss.
A hearing test is the first step to getting to the bottom of the problem. Think about it this way: a hearing assessment will be able to identify what type of hearing loss is at the source of your diplacusis (and, to be fair, you might not even recognize it as diplacusis, you may just think stuff sounds weird these days). Modern hearing tests are really sensitive, and good at finding discrepancies between how your ears hear the world.
Hearing well is more fun than not
Getting the right treatment for your diplacusis, whether that’s a hearing aid or something else, means you’ll be more able to participate in your daily life. It will be easier to carry on conversations. Keeping up with your family will be easier.
So there will be no diplacusis symptoms interfering with your ability to hear your grandchildren telling you all about the Diplodocus.
If you believe you have diplacusis and want to have it checked, give us a call for an appointment.