Important: This page is general information, not medical advice. It does not recommend or prescribe any treatment. Always consult your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any medicine.
About Ear Disorders
Your ear has three main parts: outer, middle and inner. You use all of them in hearing. Sound waves come in through your outer ear. They reach your middle ear, where they make your eardrum vibrate. The vibrations are transmitted through three tiny bones, called ossicles, in your middle ear. The vibrations travel to your inner ear, a snail-shaped organ. The inner ear makes the nerve impulses that are sent to the brain. Your brain recognizes them as sounds. The inner ear also controls balance.
A variety of conditions may affect your hearing or balance:
- Ear infections are the most common illness in infants and young children.
- Tinnitus, a roaring in your ears, can be the result of loud noises, medicines or a variety of other causes.
- Meniere's disease may be the result of fluid problems in your inner ear; its symptoms include tinnitus and dizziness.
- Ear barotrauma is an injury to your ear because of changes in barometric (air) or water pressure.
Some ear disorders can result in hearing disorders and deafness.
It sits within Ear, Nose and Throat.
The lead U.S. institute for this subject is the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.
When to speak to someone. Reading about a topic cannot tell you whether it applies to you. Speak to a doctor or pharmacist if symptoms are severe, sudden, getting worse, or simply not going away — and seek emergency care immediately for chest pain, breathing difficulty, sudden weakness or confusion, or a serious allergic reaction.
Research on Ear Disorders
2,844 studies areregistered for this condition on ClinicalTrials.gov, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's public registry. A selection is below — the links go straight to the registry entry, not to a summary of ours.
What a registered study does and does not mean. Registration means a study exists and has been declared publicly. It says nothing about whether the treatment being tested works, is safe, or is available to you. Many studies find no benefit — that is what research is for. Never seek out an experimental treatment on the strength of a registry entry alone.
Research currently under way
- Long-term Safety Study of Rimegepant in Pediatric Subjects for the Acute Treatment of MigrainePfizer
- A Pivotal Study to Evaluate the Clinical Benefit, Performance and Safety of a Totally Implantable Cochlear Implant (TICI) System in AdultsCochlear
- HEARS Maryland: Extending Capacity for Affordable, Accessible Hearing Care Through Older Adult Peer MentorshipJohns Hopkins University
- Trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole vs. Clindamycin for the Treatment of Children With Invasive MRSA InfectionsIndiana University
- Efficacy and Safety Study of Rimegepant for the Preventative Treatment of Migraine in Pediatric SubjectsPfizer
- Randomized Study in Children and Adolescents With Migraine: Acute TreatmentPfizer
Research already completed
- Biomodulator Patch for Subjective TinnitusMurat Erinç
- Technology-assisted Language Intervention (TALI)Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati
- A Feasibility Study Evaluating the Performance of Focused Multipolar Stimulation and Sound Coding in Adults.Cochlear
- Clinical and Genetic Analysis of Enlarged Vestibular AqueductsNational Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Study data from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 2026-07-30. Registry entries are supplied by study sponsors and investigators; ClinicalTrials.gov does not verify their scientific validity. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH.
Where to read more
Rather than paraphrase, we point you to the primary sources. Every link below is to a government health agency, a national institute or a recognised medical body — grouped by what you are trying to find out.
Diagnosis and Tests
- Ear ProblemsAmerican Academy of Family Physicians
Treatments and Therapies
- Ear Plastic SurgeryAmerican Academy of Otolaryngology--Head and Neck Surgery
- Ear surgery - seriesMedical Encyclopedia
- Eardrum repair - seriesMedical Encyclopedia
- Otoplasty (Cosmetic Ear Surgery)Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research
Related Issues
- Eustachian Tube DysfunctionAmerican Academy of Family Physicians
Genetics
- Auriculo-condylar syndrome: MedlinePlus GeneticsNational Library of Medicine
- Congenital deafness with labyrinthine aplasia, microtia, and microdontia: MedlinePlus GeneticsNational Library of Medicine
Clinical Trials
- ClinicalTrials.gov: Ear DiseasesNational Institutes of Health
Medical subject headings
Clinicians and researchers index this subject under Ear Diseases. These are the terms to use when searching medical literature.
This page is built from the MedlinePlus health topic record for Ear Disorders, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health. Information is from MedlinePlus.gov. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH. Retrieved 30 July 2026.