The ear is the hearing aid. It is made up of a set of organs whose purpose is the perception of sounds and the maintenance of balance. This device complements speech, because with hearing it can be integrated into the conversation that is being had, thus being able to give a coherent opinion on the subject. This body is composed of three parts: the inner ear, the middle and inner.
The external ear, for its part, is comprised of two sections: the pinna and the external auditory canal; the first, commonly known as the ear, is located on each side of the head and is a cartilaginous structure, possessing folds throughout its entire anatomy. The external auditory canal continues the pavilion cavity, extending 32 mm to the eardrum.
The middle ear is a small cavity located between the eardrum and the inner ear, housed in the temporal bone. It contains three ossicles, called the hammer, anvil and stapes, which form "the ossicles chain" , whose mission is to transmit the vibrations of the tympanic membrane in an exact and enlarged way to the inner ear.
Meanwhile, the inner ear is lodged in the rock of the temporal bone. It is formed by the bony labyrinth and the membranous labyrinth, in addition, it is full of endophilia and surrounded by perinphilia, which, incidentally, carries sounds. The bony labyrinth is made up of three parts, the bony vestibule and the semicircular canals. On the other hand, the membranous labyrinth is made up of the membranous vestibule, the semicircular ducts and the cochlear duct.
Interestingly, the ear can withstand up to 120 dB, a level considered the limit, because the discomfort appears; But when an intense and painful sound is activated, a protection mechanism is activated, causing a pair of muscles to automatically tighten or lower the eardrum and the ossicle chain, reducing the amount of energy emitted through the cochlea.
The hearing system, like other organs belonging to the human body, can suffer from diseases, some of them are: acoustic neuroma, barotrauma, benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, cholesteatoma, otitis, labyrinthitis, Ménière's disease, otosclerosis, presbycusis, tinnitus, among others.
