According to the specialist that I saw January 6, 2006 I’ve got this as the problem in my right ear hearing loss. He said it can be surgically fixed or I get a hearing aid.
Considering I want to SCUBA dive, he said surgery may not be the short term option and there is no harm in waiting anyhow. And I’d like a cranial MRI scan before doing it. Maybe I’ll try flouride for it as well? Some articles say it works. The inner ear bones are very small, the stapes is less than 3 mm. The cause of otosclerosis is the stapes not moving due to calcium buildup limiting its motion.
In detail this site says:
In otosclerosis, the consistency of the sound-conducting bones of the ear changes from hard, mineralized bone to spongy, immature bone tissue (otosclerosis is sometimes called otospongiosis for this reason). Such degeneration can cause a buildup of excess bone tissue around the stapes (a bone in the middle ear), which in turn causes the stapes to become fixed. This immobilization prevents the stapes from vibrating as it normally does while processing sound.
Wikipedia article on otosclerosis here and on stapedectomy here.
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