Tympano sclerosis

An otolaryngologist, a doctor, specializing in diagnosing and treating ear, nose, and throat disorders, diagnoses these conditions.

Exam

A healthcare provider will consider your medical history. They will want to know about any history of fluid in the ears, infections, or ear surgeries.

Next, they will most likely examine your ears using an otoscope. An otoscope is a tool that is inserted into your ear canal and allows the healthcare provider to view your eardrum. It is not uncomfortable.

Hearing Tests

If your doctor notices white patches or eardrum thickening, they may use a hearing test to confirm a diagnosis. Conductive hearing loss may indicate tympanosclerosis.

A tympanometry test uses a device called a tympanometer. It looks and feels like an otoscope, and it delivers sound waves into the middle ear. These sound waves bounce off the eardrum, and their return is charted as a tympanogram graph.

A flat tympanogram can be indicative of a rigid, un-mobile eardrum. It can give false results if you talk, swallow, yawn, sneeze, or open your mouth during the test.

Myringosclerosis is usually asymptomatic, and doesn't typically require treatment. Tympanosclerosis may need treatment if hearing loss is significant.

The treatment for tympanosclerosis is surgery to repair the eardrum and any other middle ear structures involved. A surgeon will remove the hardened (sclerotic) portions of the eardrum during surgery. They may also have to repair the middle ear bones (ossicular chain).1

A complication that sometimes occurs with tympanosclerosis is when the stapes (the third bone in the middle ear) become fixed. When this happens, the stapes can't move and therefore can't transmit sound. In these circumstances, a surgeon will perform a stapedectomy or stapedotomy.1

If the hearing loss does not entirely resolve following the surgery, a device such as a hearing aid may be helpful.