The ear is the gateway to your life

Apr 16, 2025

The ear is the gateway to your life

Otitis media is a very common ear disease - no one in the world should die from an abscess in the brain caused by an ear infection (Otitis Media).
But they do. And in Australia the outcome for indigenous children who suffer from Otis Media is vastly different than non-indigenous children.

Professor Kelvin Kong is a Worimi man from New South Wales. He is an otolaryngology, head and neck surgeon and a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS).

In an ABC Conversations broadcast in 2022 Kelvin describes the ear and hearing-:

The ear is the most beautiful organ, and it's so pretty you look at it the way you operate on it.
When you see it, it might really help functions. And people forget how important it is.
We're very lucky, and those who are listening or hearing impaired probably appreciate it more so than us who take it for granted.
Such a small device that can bring you a world of joy and happiness.
And often we talk about the medical context. We're talking about it from a disease perspective.
But in reality, what we're talking about is enjoying bird singing, the leaves rustling, rain on the tin roof, music, kids talking, dancing, fun.
And you know, it just brings an immediate smile to my face when you know that that the interpretation, what we hear is sound, and that sound is just so important to life.

Presenter: What's the process of it coming into your ear and getting into your brain?

Process of sound getting to your brain: The outside ear has a function in actually making sure the shape of the sound wave goes into it your ear in an appropriate manner.
...And I wonder whether whoever made us made us in the way that actually shaped them.
So sound wave travels into the ear canal and it hits the eardrum.
The eardrum is about one centimetre square, and it vibrates very, very fine vibrations which moves three little bones.
So those ear bones 'ossicles', and it jumps up and down on the little cochlear water, which then actually moves hair cells.
The hair cells in this cochlea, if you can try and picture the coral reef, and the coral upon the ocean just moves back and forth.
And so the sound was actually moving these hair cells.
Now we have just under 24,000 hair cells in our cochlear such a small organ, about the size of your little fingernail, that can move all this down, and it's actually typed in different patterns.
So you've got very light areas, and you've got my right areas.
We're breathe across back and forth, that same majesty that sends the sound up his brain.
And then, of course, your brain interprets the sound in a different way.
So you interpreting sound is very different the way I interpret sound.

When I talk about this to my students, you talk about different areas we go to.
When I take my kids shopping at a big department store, you might listen to the Girl from Ipanema, that encourages that demographic to pull the loyalty and spend.

When you go to a shoe shop, you'll ignore this funky hip hop, which then encourages the young ones that buy these shoes.
And so it really has a real impact on us. So we know how it does that, and we use it in marketing all the time.

The ear is so important in engaging in life and being part of life.

The educational, lifestyle and well being advantages of normal hearing are indeed understood by those without normal hearing.

Unconscious Bias affects indigenous on health

Humans are prone to many biases.

The history of removing indigenous children from parents in Australia, necessarily adds fear and unconscious bias that our health systems and our systems in place don't actually cater for indigenous people well. Otherwise statistics for Australia would match statistics for indigenous people.