Hearing and Balance Disorders

Think of your ear as having three parts: the outer ear, the middle ear, and the inner ear. Your outer ear, the part that we see, collects sound. Your middle ear transforms sound into energy. Your inner ear receives the sound energy and transmits it to your nerve endings.

Sound is energy carried in the vibration of air molecules. Sound energy first strikes your eardrum and causes it to vibrate. These vibrations are then carried along a chain of three small bones: malleus (or hammer), incus (or anvil), and stapes (or stirrup), for hearing. If anything should go wrong with any part of your ear, your hearing or balance could be affected.

The Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City treats the full spectrum of hearing disorders, including:

• Acoustic neuromas
• Auto-immune inner ear disease
• Cholesteatoma
• Chronic ear disease
• Facial nerve disorders
• Otosclerosis

Among the treatments we provide are bone-anchored hearing aids, cochlear implants, and skull-base surgery.

The treatment of balance disorders at Mount Sinai combines the experience and clinical skills of our ear, nose, and throat (otolaryngology) specialists and our neurologists. Common balance disorders we treat include:

• Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo
• Labyrinthitis (vestibular neuritis)
• Meniere's disease
• Vestibular migraine

For more information, visit our Hearing and Balance Disorders section.