Bones In Ear

Recommended: Surgery saves man from hearing his own eyeball move

Over a two-year period, Toby Spencer traipsed from doctor to doctor describing his weird collection of symptoms -- all of them involving his left ear.

"One of the first, and probably most disturbing symptoms I had was hearing my left eye movements in my head," says Spencer. "In a quiet room it was so distracting that I would often resort to running a fan or some other white noise to attempt to mask it.

"My voice and breathing were also very magnified in that ear," he explains.

There were other strange signs: "If I turned my head too quickly, especially to the left, I felt like I was falling sideways," Spencer recalls. "Loud noises would also make me feel like I was losing my balance."

The doctors he saw offered various explanations for his hearing and balance problems: From tumors and aneurysms to a jaw disorder or a lack of equilibrium in his blood pressure.

But it wasn't until Spencer, a 41-year-old IT professional from Skowhegan, Maine, stumbled upon an online forum in which a person was describing almost his exact same symptoms that he learned about a rare condition known as superior canal dehiscence syndrome .

Dehiscence (pronounced dee-hiss-ence) is a fancy word for an opening or a hole. As he eventually learned from specialists in this disorder, Spencer's symptoms were caused by a small hole -- often not much larger than a pinhead -- in the bone covering the superior semicircular canal in the inner ear.

Discovered in 1998 by Dr. Lloyd Minor, a physician from Johns Hopkins, superior canal dehiscence syndrome (SCDS) can cause hearing difficulties, balance issues, or both.

One of the more unusual and bizarre complaints described by those with SCDS is hearing their eyeballs moving in their sockets, which supposedly sounds like sandpaper rubbing on wood. (Last week, the BBC ran an article about a British man with SCDS , who like Spencer, also described feeling his eyeballs moving.)

"What makes this condition very interesting and its symptoms sometimes difficult to believe is how a tiny hole [in an inner ear bone] can cause so many problems," says Dr. Daniel Lee, an ear and skull base surgeon at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston, who specializes in SCDS and treated Spencer for it.

The tiny hole is caused by a thinning of the bones of the head and people are likely born this way, suggests Lee. This opening causes balance canals in the inner ear to be abnormally activated, and they respond to loud sounds and to pressure in the ear.

Doctor: The composition of the facial skull ...

But because fashion is changeable, then these tips are eventually lose their relevance. However, there is "static" factors that should always be considered when selecting frames - it's anatomical features of the human skull. Neglect can lead to feelings of discomfort. Let's see how related anatomy and selection of frames. In this article we will talk about the bones and cartilage. Bones Bones - a support body. In addition to the bones of hands and feet, helping to improve the position of the rim, and if necessary, and catch the flying goggles, a bone head play an important role when wearing glasses. Among the bones of the skull distinguish two groups: bone skull and facial bone. Skull represented a solid shell, it is intended to protect the brain. This department skull begins above the eye sockets and leaves them up and down. Department of Brain skull has a spherical shape, somewhat elongated from front to back. Cranial cavity is connected to the spinal canal. Front skull brain is composed of eight bones, practically immobile: the frontal, two parietal, occipital, two temporal, sphenoid, and ethmoid. The upper part of the brain called the skull vault. Inside him prilezhat arteries, veins and the cerebral cortex of the brain. Facial bone are the foundation and determine the shape of the face. This office is located between the orbits and the chin. The composition of the facial bones of the skull consists of fifteen, six of them form a pair of bones: the upper jaw, nasal, zygomatic, lacrimal, and palatine bone and inferior nasal concha. Three bones misaligned: the lower jaw, vomer and hyoid bone. All the bones are connected by flat seams and almost immobile. The lower jaw is an exception, as connected with the skull joints, she is actively involved in the process of chewing. We can assume that points are chosen correctly, if the load is distributed earhook only between the temporal bone and the petrous part, while the load frame must exclusively on the nasal bone. Petrosal bone and temporal bone behind the ear at the junction of petrous temporal bone is formed and the deepening of turning into the vault. Often he has a convex shape. However, in extremely rare cases, the ear can detect straight and flat area of ??bone. The form or shape of its ear hook end must conform to the shape of bone, thus as if repeating its outlines. Nasal bone nasal bone - a steam room. It is formed by two adjacent plates, connected by cartilage suture. When wearing glasses constantly pressed his weight on the nasal bone. Therefore, the glasses must exactly fit his nose to the nasal bone, repeating its outlines. Cartilage Cartilage is an elastic substance which, when separate consideration seems translucent, molokoobraznoy. With age, cartilage loses its elasticity due to calcium deposits. Therefore, elderly people may have problems here rather than in youth.

Biology, Concepts and Applications

Proceedings of the 3rd Symposium on Middle Ear Mechanics in Research and Otology, Matsuyama, Ehime, Japan, 9-12 July 2003

Life Living for Ages 5-8

Primer of physiology, being a practical textbook of physiological principles and their applications to problems of health

Encyclopedia of Family Health