An improvement in lifestyle is important for ear disease
Recently, the number of cases complaining of hearing loss, tinnitus, and dizziness is increasing due to the increase in the use of earphones, living noise, and stress. I met Jeon Young-myung, director of Sori Clinic's Gunja branch, who is a pioneer of artificial cochlear implant through fenestra rotunda for hearing preservation, and stands out in the auditory field for 'hearing aid combined hybrid artificial cochlear implant surgery (EAS)' and ' external auditory meatus surgery' for the first time in Korea. We talked about the treatment and management of ear diseases.
Q. Medieus Queen: It's an honor to meet you here because the Soric Clinic is already a famous hospital among patients. You established the first ear clinic in Korea in 2002 and currently operate Sori Clinic. At that time, it seemed not easy to open a hospital specializing in ears, not otolaryngology, so please introduce the purpose of your establishment and the hospital.
A. Jeon Young-myung, director of the Gunja branch of Sori Clinic (hereinafter referred to as Jeon Young-myung): After I became an otolaryngologist, I felt that ear field requires a lot of expertise. So I went to the House Ear Clinic in the U.S. and did a fellowship for about two years. House Ear Clinic was a small clinic established in 1950 but played a decisive role in the world's hearing field as specialized personnel gathered to develop hearing aids and artificial cochlear implants. Compared to university hospitals, private clinics are very efficient in developing centralized clinical programs and applying them to patients. I thought we needed a specialized clinic in Korea that can overcome difficulties and limitations in university hospitals, and I established this clinic.
Q. Medieus Queen: It is no exaggeration to say that Sori Clinic is an "earth general hospital" in terms of facilities and size that allows all tests and surgeries related to ear diseases such as hearing loss, tinnitus, dizziness, and otitis media. I wonder what are differences from Big 5 hospitals.
A. For example, while the role of a university hospital is to verify the causes and treatments of the disease through basic research and development, we're focused on clinically trying to see how and what treatments can be applied to patients to achieve 100% effectiveness. In other words, we can only focus on trials for patients, and we are producing good results in new and limited fields. There are also differences in facilities, size, and manpower. About 450 employees play various roles in our hospital, of which about 60% are professionals. There is no limitation in operating special rehabilitation programs because there are about 20 to 30 professionals such as audiologists, speech therapists, and music therapists except doctors. In the early days, patients usually worried a lot about emergency situations during surgery such as securing an intensive care unit when choosing a hospital, which was one of the things that were difficult to overcome. However, our hospital has performed many child surgeries for 20 years and has had few accidents. So now, as awareness has improved and advanced systems have been introduced, the hospital is well maintaining the highest level in Korea in terms of scale and facilities.
Q. Medieus Queen: I know that you are a pioneer of “Hearing Conservation Artificial Cochlear implant Surgery through fenestra rotunda and have performed the first "Hearing Hearing Aid Combined Hybrid Artificial Cochlear implant Surgery (EAS)." Please explain in detail.
A. Jeon Young-myung: When you hear the sound, it enters through the eardrum, and the auditory cells in the cochlea receive the sound and connect it to the nerves like an electric wire. However, about 95% of severe hearing loss is caused because the cochlea does not function properly. The cochlea is connected by frequency like a piano keyboard, and artificial cochlear implant surgery has been developed for more than 40 years since the 1970s when the first preliminary attempt to insert wires into the cochlea and allocate them by frequency was started as a rudimentary attempt. The problem is that in the case of people with hearing ability left, the remaining hearing is damaged in the process of drilling a bone to insert an electrode into the cochlea. Therefore, to improve that, we developed the electrodes to be thinner and softer, and conducted research to know about which surgical methods would be better. As a result, we found that hearing can be preserved by using a surgical method that inserts through a membrane called fenestra rotunda without piercing the bones of the cochlea. But as the fenestra rotunda is so different from person to person that it was hard to look at, it was impossible to apply this method to people who had hearing ability left a lot until this method was developed to use the fenestra rotunda 100%. So the newly developed surgery is a hybrid implant. While there is a limit to hearing aids, this can be applied after artificial cochlear implant surgery to those who have impaired hearing. For example, if you can hear low sounds like aging hearing difficulty, but you can't hear high sounds, you can hear low sounds with hearing aids using air vibrations, and high sounds through artificial cochlear implants using electrical stimulation.
Q. Medieus Queen: If your ears are naturally blocked and you can't hear well, you'll think about various ways to improve your hearing and appearance. Among these methods, surgery can be considered. Please explain in detail what kind of surgery the "improved external ear opening surgery" you developed. And I wonder what motivated you to improve this surgery.
A. Jeon Young-myung: There are cases where there are no or small earflaps, or there are no earholes. If you don't have an outer ear, it's an external problem rather than a function, and the ear holes are related to hearing. Surgery to open up blocked ear canal obstruction is the most difficult surgery in the field of the ear. It is an area that has a high failure rate and continues to develop inflammation, which remains a problem that cannot be solved. In addition, since cases are so rare that one person with the case is born in 10,000 people, it is an area that has not been developed because there are very few doctors with clinical surgery experience. Therefore, Korean patients often went abroad to undergo surgery. Then I saw a good case of surgery results in foreign countries, and since then, I have had the opportunity to operate on some patients. As it spread viral, I have been conducting more and more surgeries. During the operation for 15 years, the surgical method changed about three times. It has improved little by little every year and has developed into a very stable surgical method since three to four years ago. So I can tell you that our hospital has a very unique competitiveness, so many patients visit the hospital to undergo this surgery overseas.
Q. Medieus Queen: Recently, more and more people complain of hearing difficulty or dizziness due to increased use of earphones, living noise, and stress. There are many cases that lead to hospitalization due to this. I wonder which patients visit the hospital a lot.
A. Jeon Young-myung: The number of patients with dizziness and hearing difficulty has increased a lot recently. Although the cause is different, dizziness symptoms are typically caused by a physical problem called cupulolithiasis, or neurological problems. But usually, if you look at the cause, it's also related to lifestyle. There are four main factors: stress, sleep, nutrition, and exercise. Especially, stress accounts for a high proportion. So I'm developing several programs to apply psychological treatments such as lifestyle improvement and positive psychotherapy.
Q. Medieus Queen: A recent study has shown that the number of patients with hearing difficulty and ringing in the ears is increasing due to COVID-19. I wonder how COVID-19 affects hearing and what kind of correlation there is.
A. Jeon Young-myung: People with poor hearing originally communicated by looking at the shape of the mouths of speakers started to have difficulty communicating due to the mask covering. In the case of using hearing aids or artificial cochlear implants, there are difficulties due to masks since they have been able to communicate to some extent by looking at the shape of their mouths, and secondly, they didn’t feel hearing problems before and suddenly realize that they cannot hear after using the mask. As a result, there is an increasing number of people who suddenly find their work life or daily life difficult.
Q. Medieus Queen: Please tell us about a lifestyle to prevent hearing impairment, or how to deal with ear discomfort in the daily life.
A. Jeon Young-myung: As hearing is very sensitive and has a lot to do with life, it is important to accurately understand your condition. You should identify your problems through tests and then manage them by improving your lifestyle. Sleep is very important in lifestyle, followed by taking caffeine and eating salty food which is not very good for your ears. In particular, caffeine itself acts as a vasoconstrictor, which can directly affect the cochlea because it interferes with peripheral blood circulation. In addition, it is recommended to reduce sodium intake because it causes vascular diseases such as migraines and often leads to cupulolithiasis or Meniere disease and
dizziness. And it's important to rest your ears because you've been exposed to earphones or living noise too much recently. It is to stay quiet without hearing anything.
Q. Medieus Queen: Finally, please tell me what field or goal you are working on.
A. Jeon Young-myung: For 20 years, I have played a role in developing various ear-related fields such as hearing difficulty, ringing in the ears, congenital ear disease, and blind spots that could not be applied because I could not find a way to treat. Many patients came to our hospital to receive treatment, and in the process, I had a lot of clinical data. I think it's my responsibility and duty not to bury the results of the study. So I think our task is to systematize and share these research data with many people. Secondly, although it is not found in Korea, the lifestyle field is emerging as a medical part in foreign countries, and there are specialized clinics. In fact, there are too many cases where people do not receive proper treatment, only take medicine and endure it, or suffer from wrong treatment methods other than hospitals. I hope these fields will be applied to the general public a lot. We plan to develop proper methods and systematize protocols to develop treatments that can be widely distributed.
A. Jeon Young-myung, director of the Gunja branch of Sori Clinic (hereinafter referred to as Jeon Young-myung): After I became an otolaryngologist, I felt that ear field requires a lot of expertise. So I went to the House Ear Clinic in the U.S. and did a fellowship for about two years. House Ear Clinic was a small clinic established in 1950 but played a decisive role in the world's hearing field as specialized personnel gathered to develop hearing aids and artificial cochlear implants. Compared to university hospitals, private clinics are very efficient in developing centralized clinical programs and applying them to patients. I thought we needed a specialized clinic in Korea that can overcome difficulties and limitations in university hospitals, and I established this clinic.
Q. Medieus Queen: It is no exaggeration to say that Sori Clinic is an "earth general hospital" in terms of facilities and size that allows all tests and surgeries related to ear diseases such as hearing loss, tinnitus, dizziness, and otitis media. I wonder what are differences from Big 5 hospitals.
A. For example, while the role of a university hospital is to verify the causes and treatments of the disease through basic research and development, we're focused on clinically trying to see how and what treatments can be applied to patients to achieve 100% effectiveness. In other words, we can only focus on trials for patients, and we are producing good results in new and limited fields. There are also differences in facilities, size, and manpower. About 450 employees play various roles in our hospital, of which about 60% are professionals. There is no limitation in operating special rehabilitation programs because there are about 20 to 30 professionals such as audiologists, speech therapists, and music therapists except doctors. In the early days, patients usually worried a lot about emergency situations during surgery such as securing an intensive care unit when choosing a hospital, which was one of the things that were difficult to overcome. However, our hospital has performed many child surgeries for 20 years and has had few accidents. So now, as awareness has improved and advanced systems have been introduced, the hospital is well maintaining the highest level in Korea in terms of scale and facilities.
Q. Medieus Queen: I know that you are a pioneer of “Hearing Conservation Artificial Cochlear implant Surgery through fenestra rotunda and have performed the first "Hearing Hearing Aid Combined Hybrid Artificial Cochlear implant Surgery (EAS)." Please explain in detail.
A. Jeon Young-myung: When you hear the sound, it enters through the eardrum, and the auditory cells in the cochlea receive the sound and connect it to the nerves like an electric wire. However, about 95% of severe hearing loss is caused because the cochlea does not function properly. The cochlea is connected by frequency like a piano keyboard, and artificial cochlear implant surgery has been developed for more than 40 years since the 1970s when the first preliminary attempt to insert wires into the cochlea and allocate them by frequency was started as a rudimentary attempt. The problem is that in the case of people with hearing ability left, the remaining hearing is damaged in the process of drilling a bone to insert an electrode into the cochlea. Therefore, to improve that, we developed the electrodes to be thinner and softer, and conducted research to know about which surgical methods would be better. As a result, we found that hearing can be preserved by using a surgical method that inserts through a membrane called fenestra rotunda without piercing the bones of the cochlea. But as the fenestra rotunda is so different from person to person that it was hard to look at, it was impossible to apply this method to people who had hearing ability left a lot until this method was developed to use the fenestra rotunda 100%. So the newly developed surgery is a hybrid implant. While there is a limit to hearing aids, this can be applied after artificial cochlear implant surgery to those who have impaired hearing. For example, if you can hear low sounds like aging hearing difficulty, but you can't hear high sounds, you can hear low sounds with hearing aids using air vibrations, and high sounds through artificial cochlear implants using electrical stimulation.
Q. Medieus Queen: If your ears are naturally blocked and you can't hear well, you'll think about various ways to improve your hearing and appearance. Among these methods, surgery can be considered. Please explain in detail what kind of surgery the "improved external ear opening surgery" you developed. And I wonder what motivated you to improve this surgery.
A. Jeon Young-myung: There are cases where there are no or small earflaps, or there are no earholes. If you don't have an outer ear, it's an external problem rather than a function, and the ear holes are related to hearing. Surgery to open up blocked ear canal obstruction is the most difficult surgery in the field of the ear. It is an area that has a high failure rate and continues to develop inflammation, which remains a problem that cannot be solved. In addition, since cases are so rare that one person with the case is born in 10,000 people, it is an area that has not been developed because there are very few doctors with clinical surgery experience. Therefore, Korean patients often went abroad to undergo surgery. Then I saw a good case of surgery results in foreign countries, and since then, I have had the opportunity to operate on some patients. As it spread viral, I have been conducting more and more surgeries. During the operation for 15 years, the surgical method changed about three times. It has improved little by little every year and has developed into a very stable surgical method since three to four years ago. So I can tell you that our hospital has a very unique competitiveness, so many patients visit the hospital to undergo this surgery overseas.
Q. Medieus Queen: Recently, more and more people complain of hearing difficulty or dizziness due to increased use of earphones, living noise, and stress. There are many cases that lead to hospitalization due to this. I wonder which patients visit the hospital a lot.
A. Jeon Young-myung: The number of patients with dizziness and hearing difficulty has increased a lot recently. Although the cause is different, dizziness symptoms are typically caused by a physical problem called cupulolithiasis, or neurological problems. But usually, if you look at the cause, it's also related to lifestyle. There are four main factors: stress, sleep, nutrition, and exercise. Especially, stress accounts for a high proportion. So I'm developing several programs to apply psychological treatments such as lifestyle improvement and positive psychotherapy.
Q. Medieus Queen: A recent study has shown that the number of patients with hearing difficulty and ringing in the ears is increasing due to COVID-19. I wonder how COVID-19 affects hearing and what kind of correlation there is.
A. Jeon Young-myung: People with poor hearing originally communicated by looking at the shape of the mouths of speakers started to have difficulty communicating due to the mask covering. In the case of using hearing aids or artificial cochlear implants, there are difficulties due to masks since they have been able to communicate to some extent by looking at the shape of their mouths, and secondly, they didn’t feel hearing problems before and suddenly realize that they cannot hear after using the mask. As a result, there is an increasing number of people who suddenly find their work life or daily life difficult.
Q. Medieus Queen: Please tell us about a lifestyle to prevent hearing impairment, or how to deal with ear discomfort in the daily life.
A. Jeon Young-myung: As hearing is very sensitive and has a lot to do with life, it is important to accurately understand your condition. You should identify your problems through tests and then manage them by improving your lifestyle. Sleep is very important in lifestyle, followed by taking caffeine and eating salty food which is not very good for your ears. In particular, caffeine itself acts as a vasoconstrictor, which can directly affect the cochlea because it interferes with peripheral blood circulation. In addition, it is recommended to reduce sodium intake because it causes vascular diseases such as migraines and often leads to cupulolithiasis or Meniere disease and
dizziness. And it's important to rest your ears because you've been exposed to earphones or living noise too much recently. It is to stay quiet without hearing anything.
Q. Medieus Queen: Finally, please tell me what field or goal you are working on.
A. Jeon Young-myung: For 20 years, I have played a role in developing various ear-related fields such as hearing difficulty, ringing in the ears, congenital ear disease, and blind spots that could not be applied because I could not find a way to treat. Many patients came to our hospital to receive treatment, and in the process, I had a lot of clinical data. I think it's my responsibility and duty not to bury the results of the study. So I think our task is to systematize and share these research data with many people. Secondly, although it is not found in Korea, the lifestyle field is emerging as a medical part in foreign countries, and there are specialized clinics. In fact, there are too many cases where people do not receive proper treatment, only take medicine and endure it, or suffer from wrong treatment methods other than hospitals. I hope these fields will be applied to the general public a lot. We plan to develop proper methods and systematize protocols to develop treatments that can be widely distributed.
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