Tampa Bay Hearing & Balance Center

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Specialists in Otology, Neurotology, and Skull Base Surgery

Loren J Bartels MD FACS and Christopher J Danner MD diagnose and treat ear, hearing, balance, facial nerve, and skull base medical problems. Our services in these areas are comprehensive. We strive to provide excellent hearing and balance services to meet our patient's physical, emotional, and life-style needs. We look forward to providing you with top quality care.

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The cochlear implant is an electronic device that provides sound information to individuals that have a sensorineural hearing loss in both ears and do not adequately benefit from hearing aids. The cochlear implant stimulates the surviving auditory nerve fibers in the center column of the inner ear, an area called the modiolus which houses the cochlear spiral...

Modern hearing aids are fitted with impressive options. They include sound processing strategies that make an available hearing aid that is either digital or analog; programmable or nonprogrammable; fitted with circuits to increase or decrease certain sounds; modifications to make telephone use easier; built in direct audio input boots; and other significant ...

Baha Bone Anchored Implants
Typical hearing aids amplify air conducted sound and output air conducted sound directly into the external ear canal. The BAHA Bone Anchored Implant converts sound into vibrations that are transmitted to the skull through a titanium post-coupling device that connects to the skull behind the ear...

Skull Base Tumors
An Acoustic neuroma is the most common skull base tumor that involves the ear. It is a benign (not cancerous) tumor that typically begins in the balance nerve, the eighth cranial nerve. The eighth cranial nerve nerve carries both the hearing and balance sensation from the ear to the brain. The eighth cranial nerve runs next to the facial nerve (7th cranial nerve) and...

New Surgery Presentation Available: Otosclerosis seems to be an inherited problem that is triggered by a viral illness, perhaps the measles virus. While otosclerosis tends to run in families, most blood relatives are free of the disorder. The abnormal bone growth dampens the vibrations of the stapes bone, causing a hearing loss. The hearing loss type is called conductive ...

Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo
Benign paroxysmal positioning vertigo (BPPV) is a common type of vertigo. The most typical movements that provoke vertigo are lying back into bed, getting up out of bed, tipping the head back (for example to instill eye drops), and bending over and standing up quickly. It is caused by inner ear crystals that drift into the back, bottom inner ear semicircular canal ...

Vertigo, Dizziness, Imbalance
Dizziness is abnormal and usually treatable. The brain's ability to maintain balance employs the inner ear, the eyes and a variety of muscle and joint sensors to inform the brain so that the body moves smoothly while in action. For it all to function well, circulation of blood to the brain must be sufficient and stable. A person who has poor...

Cholesteatoma is a type of skin cyst or sac located in the middle ear. Typically, cholesteatoma is a complication of repeated ear infections and eustachian tube dysfunction. Infection weakens an area of the eardrum membrane. If the Eustachian tube fails to pass air up into the middle ear, a vacuum develops and pulls the weakened area of the eardrum membrane into ...

Head noise, or tinnitus, is common. It may be intermittent or constant, mild or severe, and vary from a low roar to a high pitched type of sound. It may be subjective (audible only to the patient) or objective (audible to others). It may or may not be associated with hearing impairment. Tinnitus must always be thought of as a symptom and not a disease, just as pain in an arm or ...

Webcast Cochlear Impant Surgery with Narration
View the cochlear implant surgery performed by Loren J Bartels MD FACS and narrated by Christopher J Danner MD at Tampa General Hospital on July 26, 2007.

Do You Have Hearing Loss?
While some folks with hearing loss notice the problem themselves, the hearing deficit tends to sneak up on most folks. Family members may be more blunt about your hearing...