Q: A few days back I used a safety pin to remove a grain of rice which had accidentally dropped into the left ear while sleeping. Unfortunately this caused some damage to internal parts in the ear and it started to bleed. Some muscular portion of the ear has come out as well. Immediately following this the taste buds on the left side of my tongue became non-functional and I have also lost my hearing quite a bit. Apparently, my facial nerves are intact. The ENT specialist says that it is an irreparable damage. I have completely damaged my muscular bone in the ear which is perhaps located behind the eardrum. The doctor said that it cannot be replaced artificially and hence i have to live with the impairment. My eardrum is already damaged which is supposed to be replaced by myringo-plastic surgery. May I request you to kindly let me know if there is any thing that could be done to rectify the damage.

A:If you already had an eardrum perforation, and the pin has damaged your nerve supplying the taste buds, this is a very minor damage, and can sometimes happen even during very minor surgery. If the rest of the taste is intact, and the facial is intact, you are lucky. Go for the Myringoplasty surgery, but ask the surgeon to specially check the corda tympani nerve and see if it is intact or not. If it is, you may even recover the taste function.