Anatomy of the ear

Can assist in the understanding of where your hearing problem lies.

The outer ear

The outer ear includes the pinna, the auditory canal and the eardrum. Its main function is to channel sounds from our surrounding environment into the inner part of the ear. The auricle helps to gather the sound waves and the auditory canal then directs them to the eardrum.

The middle ear

The middle ear is an air filled cavity that contains the 3 smallest bones in the human body, the malleus, incus and stapes.  The malleus is connected to the eardrum, and the stapes is connected to a thin membrane on the wall of the inner ear.  The middle ear is also connected to the nose via the Eustachian Tube that keeps the air pressure in the middle ear equal to that of the surrounding environment.

This is the region where ear infections often form especially in children.

The inner ear

The cochlea is the sense organ of hearing, and is a fluid filled cavity housing tiny hair cells. When the fluid in the cochlea is displaced by sound waves passed on by the  middle ear bones, the hair cells bend.  This triggers a chemical response which activates the corresponding nerve endings sending language information to the brain’s language centre.  Most adults we see have a hearing loss in this region of the ear.