Hearing loss or tinnitus can result from a range of conditions, injuries, illnesses, hereditary factors, environmental reasons, or foreign substances. Some specific causes of auditory problems include:
- Blast-related or blunt-head trauma that results in a spectrum of injuries from debris in the ear canal to a perforated or ruptured ear drum to skull fractures that affect the auditory system
- Virus or disease, such as autoimmune inner ear disease or Ménière’s disease
- Aging
- Malformation of the inner or outer ear, ear canal, or middle ear structures
- Otosclerosis
- Tumors
- Fluid in the middle ear, which may be associated with a cold
- Otitis media, which is an infection of the middle ear, behind the ear drum
- Allergies
- Eustachian tube dysfunction
- Impacted earwax or other foreign bodies in the ear canal, or
- Infection in the ear canal