Beyond Hearing: 4 Surprising Ear Facts People Don’t Know

“Hearing loss is a terrible thing because it cannot be repaired.” – Pete Townshend (Musician)

This article is written for general understanding only and is not based on personal experience or medical expertise.

We hear through a delicate system in our ears, connecting us with our environment and other people. Our precious hearing can easily be affected by numerous things. Although many people are familiar with tinnitus, a buzzing or ringing in the ears, double hearing (diplacusis) – perceiving sound differently in each ear – can be equally frustrating.

Many gardeners love the water-wise Yucca plant. But who would guess that it can rupture your eardrum and cause temporary or permanent hearing loss?

The Trears device is excellent for collecting earwax for cortisol testing. They should make it available to replace Q-tips – another cause of ruptured ear drums. This innovative tool would have been excellent for artist Amanda Cotton to collect earwax for her unique art.

Let’s dive into Unheard Wonders: 4 Surprising Facts About Hearing You Didn’t Know.

1. Double Hearing

Double hearing (diplacusis) or interaural pitch difference (IPS) is a frustrating hearing condition. Generally associated with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL), this condition can be temporary or permanent.

Diplacusis occurs when a person hears the same sound differently in each ear. It causes a dissonance in the pitch or timing of the sound, which causes the brain to detect the pitch as lower or higher in one ear.

1. Diplacusis dysharmonica is when one ear hears a sound normally while the other perceives the pitch differently.
2. Diplacusis binauralis manifests in each ear, where a sound is heard differently from the other.
3. Diplacusis monauralis is similar to diplacusis binauralis, except that you hear two different sounds in the same ear.
4. Diplacusis echoica occurs when sound timing is slightly off, creating an echo effect.

Diplacusis is a symptom of sudden or bilateral hearing loss. It occurs with hearing loss in one ear or uneven hearing loss between both ears.

There are various causes for diplacusis:

• trauma
• severe ear infection
• certain medications
• exposure to extreme noise
• obstructions in the ear from tumours, clogged sinuses, excessive earwax, or sinus infection.

However, if it is caused by an obstruction, treating the cause generally resolves the diplacusis as well. It often accompanies tinnitus – an undetectable buzzing or ringing in the affected ear.

In cases of permanent diplacusis, the fitment of hearing aids or cochlear implants (CIs) can make a big difference.

A source of trauma that causes a ruptured eardrum and possibly permanent hearing loss is, surprisingly, the Yucca, a popular plant in many gardens.

2 The Hidden Danger of the Yucca Plant

The popular Yucca plant doesn’t need much water and adds a dramatic effect to your garden with its sword-shaped leaves. However, these ‘swords’ pose the danger of deafness to some.

A study reported in Clinical Otolaryngology labels the Yucca plant a garden terror, causing at least 28 serious ear injuries when its pointy leaves entered people’s ear canals.

The Yucca caused three types of damage:

1. Abrasions or nasty scratches, which were irritating but not severe.
2. A ruptured eardrum or tympanic membrane perforation (TMP). It is painful and causes hearing loss, vertigo and related vomiting. In some cases, the ruptured eardrum healed in a few weeks.
3. Perilymph fistula (PLF) occurs when the leaf breaks through into the inner ear, suddenly causing the fluid-filled inner ear to connect to the air-filled middle ear. It causes permanent hearing loss and dizziness.

However, with only 28 incidents reported between 2012 and 2017, injury by Yucca is rare.

On a more positive note, your earwax protects your sensitive ears by trapping dust, germs, bacteria and small objects. However, it can have other benefits, such as testing cortisol levels to prevent numerous diseases.

3 Earwax Testing

Different levels of the stress hormone cortisol can cause various conditions like Cushing’s syndrome and Addison’s disease and is also a biomarker for depression. Labs use hair samples to test cortisol levels, but it is time-consuming, unreliable, and costly.

However, according to Dr Andres Herane-Vives, cortisol levels in earwax seem more stable, and with the Trears device, it is simple to get a sample. You swap for earwax with this device, which has a brake to prevent it from entering too deep into the ear.

There are limitations to this method because of differences in cortisol concentrations between earwax and hair, which they need to explore in future studies.

In addition to research – who would have thought that someone would use earwax to create jewellery?

4 Earwax Art

Artist Amanda Cotton expressed her creativity uniquely by creating a necklace from her hair and earwax! She says she collected her earwax over eight months. She spun her hair and then plated it to make a chain, which held the earwax beads. She displays it on the plaster cast of her shoulders.

Amanda says the earwax reminded her of amber, a delicate jewel. Earwax is critical in protecting your hearing; it is her way to wear it on display rather than in secret.

This unique necklace was featured in:

• The book WHAT’s NEXT? Eco Materialism and Contemporary Art by Linda Weintraub.
• New Designers’ The Business Design Centre, London 2013
• Up and Beyond’ University of Brighton Graduate Show, Brighton 2012

---

From the frustration of double hearing (diplacusis) to the fantastic earwax necklace of Amanda Cotton, we see there is more to our ears than we imagine. Although this article may inspire you to create something unique with your earwax, leave the Q-tips alone and be careful around Yucca plants! Finally, let’s hope that besides protecting our incredible ears, earwax can live up to the expectations of cortisol testers.

As we reconsider the quote from musician Pete Townshend, let’s take special care of our ears since hearing loss is a terrible thing that cannot be repaired!

---