Effects of smoking on the auditory system

Introduction: Now-a-days the smoking has been increased to a peak level not only in adults but also in youngsters. Smoking has various patho physiological effects among which the effect on hearing sensitivity is one, which has adverse effects on audition. Aim of the Study: To compare the effects of smoking on hearing sensitivity in active and passive smokers. Methodology: The study has been carried out on twenty males who have smoke exposure since 2 years, without any history of other health issues and hearing problems. The twenty subjects were divided into two groups in which one consist of 10 active smokers and other consists of 10 passive smokers. All the selected subjects were administered the conventional pure tone audiometry, speech audiometry, immittance, reflexometry, and Otoacoustic emission and the data were recorded. Results: The following study shows that active smokers have more hearing sensitivity decrement than passive smoking the mean hearing loss in Right ear is 42dB and left ear is 45.5dB in active smokers and in passive smokers 28dB in Rt ear and 23dB in Lt ear. The pure tone audiometric results were correlated with speech recognition thresholds and speech discrimination scores and it shows no much effect on SRT and SDS. Impedance audiometric results also show no effect on middle ear functions and all subjects have shown “A” type tympanogram. Reflexiometric results show that 70% of active smokers are with absent reflexes and 30% of active smokers are with elevated reflexes where as 80% of passive smokers are with elevated reflexes and 20% of passive smokers are with absent reflexes.OAE results show that 50% of the active smokers were passed and 50% were failed where as 80% of passive smokers were passed and 20% were failed. On an average, the active smokers have shown more hearing sensitivity decrement than passive smokers.