Ear Popper

Reported January 2006

BROOKLYN, N.Y. (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- Middle ear fluid is one of the most common problems for children. The solution is often surgery, but now a new, low-tech device is keeping many kids out of the operating room.

Alison Riordan is an active 8-year old, but only a short time ago she struggled at everything. "I used to not be able hear very well, and I had to ask my neighbors in school to repeat it for me."

Carolyn, Alison's mother, says, "My daughter was losing out on so much. She would come out of school so unhappy."

At age 4, Alison was put on medication for her middle ear fluid. After that, she had surgery to put tubes in her ears. They, however, fell out and she was back to square one. Then the EarPopper was introduced. The device restored her hearing. To use the EarPopper, Alison takes a puff of air, swallows and her ears pop, just like on an airplane.

Daniel Arick, M.D., an otolaryngologist at New York Eye and Ear Infirmary in Brooklyn and co-inventor of EarPopper says, "The EarPopper sends air up the Eustachian tube into the middle ear where the fluid is and repeated ventilation of the ear, we found, resolves the fluid problem and the hearing is restored to normal."

"If I close my nose and swallow -- I wish everyone would do that -- you feel popping," says Shlomo Silman, M.D., a hearing scientist at Brooklyn College in N.Y. and co-inventor of EarPopper. That popping means air is flowing from the nose to the middle ear, but Dr. Silman says that doesn't happen naturally in children with undeveloped Eustachian tubes.

Dr. Arick says, "This is significant in the sense that you are not using antibiotics."

Alison feels good as new. She is not alone; the EarPopper worked for 85 percent of the children who tried it.

The EarPopper costs about $300 and is available by prescription only. For more information, you can visitwww.earpopper.com.

Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:

Ear Popper
(800) 624-5662
http://www.earpopper.com

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