What Are Ears and What Do They Do?
The ear is made up of three different sections working together to collect sounds and send them to the brain: outer ear, middle ear, and inner ear.
The Outer Ear
Outer ear is made up of pinna - also called auricle (OR-ih-kul) - and ear canal. Pinna is the part of ear you see on the side of your head and is made of tough cartilage covered by skin. Its main job is to gather sounds and funnel them to the ear canal, which is the pathway leading to middle ear. Glands in skin lining the ear canal produce earwax, which protects the canal by cleaning out dirt and helping to prevent infections.
The Middle Ear
Middle ear is an air-filled cavity turning sound waves into vibrations and delivering to inner ear. Middle ear is separated from outer ear by eardrum, or tympanic membrane, a thin piece of tissue stretched tight across the ear canal. Sounds hit the eardrum, causing it to move.
This movement leads to vibrations of three very small bones in the middle ear known as ossicles (AH-sih-kuls)
. Ossicles are:
- the malleus (MAH-lee-us) ("hammer"), which is attached to the eardrum
- the incus (IN-kus) ("anvil"), which is attached to the malleus
- the stapes (STAY-peez) ("stirrup"), which is attached to the incus and is the smallest bone in the body
To hear properly, pressure on both sides of eardrum must be equal. When you go up or down in elevation, air pressure changes, and you may feel a popping sensation as ears adjust. Ears adjust due to the narrow Eustachian (yoo-STAY-she-en) tube that connects middle ear to back of the nose and acts as a sort of pressure valve, so pressure stays balanced on both eardrum sides.
Inner Ear
Vibrations from the middle ear change into nerve signals in inner ear. Inner ear includes cochlea (KOH-klee-uh) and semicircular canals.The snail-shaped cochlea changes vibrations from middle ear into nerve signals. These signals travel to the brain along the cochlear nerve, also known as the auditory nerve.
The semicircular canals look like three tiny, connected tubes. It's their job to help you balance. Canals are filled with fluid and lined with tiny hairs. When your head moves, fluid in canals sloshes around, moving hairs. Hairs send this position information as signals through vestibular nerve to your brain. The brain interprets these signals and sends messages to muscles to help keep balanced.
When you spin around and stop, the reason you feel dizzy is because fluid in your semicircular canals continues to slosh around for awhile, giving your brain the idea you're still spinning even when you aren't. When fluid stops moving, dizziness goes away.
How Can I Keep My Child's Ears Healthy?
Teach kids not to stick things like cotton swabs and fingernails into ears. Doing so can scratch the ear canal, push
earwax deeper into the ear, and even
rupture the eardrum. If your child is bothered by earwax, talk to your doctor.
Teach kids to protect hearing by paying attention to the noise levels they're exposed to. Have them turn down the volume on video games, TVs, and, phones. Make sure they take hearing protection (like earplugs or protective earmuffs/headphones) when they'll be around
loud noises (at a concert, car race, etc.).
If you can hear sounds when your child has on earbuds or headphones, then the sound is too loud!
If your child has any trouble hearing, reach out to your doctor. Treating hearing loss early can limit the damage.
https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/ears.html?WT.ac=ctg#catears