Pediatric Hearing Loss Treatments

When entrusting your child to the hearing loss experts at the University of Chicago Medicine Comer Children's Hospital, you can expect a treatment plan that is personalized for your child's specific needs. Our multidisciplinary team collaborates to create an individualized treatment plan that is designed to effectively and efficiently improve your child’s hearing loss.

Treatment Options

Medical Care

For some children, medication will be enough to treat their condition. For instance, if he or she has frequent ear infections, we may prescribe antibiotic pills or drops. Steroids can also be used to treat inflammation or sudden hearing loss.  

Ear Tubes

When fluid from ear infections builds up behind the eardrum, or if your child gets frequent ear infections, ear tubes can be placed in the eardrum to help regulate air pressure and prevent fluid from recurring. Typically, the tube will fall out on its own and your child’s eardrum will heal. 

Repairing Middle Ear Bones

There are several surgical treatments available for the outer and middle ear conditions:

• Ossicular Chain Reconstruction (Ossiculoplasty): When your child has one or more damages or missing middle ear bones, we can replace the bones using prosthetics that mimic our natural hearing bones and improve overall hearing.
• Tympanoplasty: A perforated eardrum that has not healed on its own can be surgically closed to improve hearing and prevent infection. During a tympanoplasty, we place graft materials (such as cartilage or fascia) under the eardrum to promote the eardrum to heal. 
• Stapedotomy: For children with otosclerosis (a condition where the third hearing bone, the stapes bone, stops vibrating correctly), a stapedotomy removes the existing stapes bone and replacing it with a prosthetic device.
• Aural Atresia Repair: If your child who were born without an ear canal or developed severe narrowing of the ear canal, performing aural atresia repair will restore the natural sound to the middle ear. This procedure involves creating a new eardrum with fascia tissue and a skin graft to create a new ear canal. 

Hearing Aids

For children who need them, a hearing aid can amplify sound in their ear and improve overall hearing. In order to deliver the level of hearing restoration needed, we offer a variety of hearing aid devices. Our pediatric audiologists will help you select the best hearing aid, discuss how to wear it, ensure it fits comfortably and program it to your child’s unique pattern of hearing loss

Cochlear Implants

When hearing aids are no longer providing benefit to your child, a cochlear implant can help restore hearing. Unlike a hearing aid that only amplifies sound, cochlear implants actually transmits an electrical signal directly to your child’s inner ear (cochlea). After the cochlear implant is turned on, your child will attend quarterly speech therapy sessions to develop his or her listening and spoken language. The goal is to allow your child to improve their ability to communicate and it can result in a remarkable improvement in speech and language development. Learn more about cochlear implants