I was born without a defective right ear. Mom didn't realize until going to wash me as a tiny baby. Right ear is slightly smaller than left. No hole on outer ear. Only learned that I didn't have an ear connection much later in life. When I was perhaps 5 or 6 my mom took me to Scottish Rite hospital for testing and a possible operation to fix the problem. Well no doctor wanted to do the operation(only found our later in adulthood why). They said, "Wait until she loses hearing in the good ear." Sounded callous at the time.

I did have some problems, in the beginning, at school but only not hearing the teacher giving instructions. That was fixed somewhat by having me sit in one the front desks. But often, as I do now, I had to turn slightly to hear properly.

But later in HS, I didn't let the teachers know about my problem and I was an honor student throughout my HS years.

About 10 years ago, I finally went to an Otolaryngologist. After testing, he passed me onto another doctor(apparently he didn't want to fool with it). Again after testing, the doctor was very frank with me. After so many years I found out that I didn't have an ear canal. He would have to take skin from another part of my body to form one. There was no guarantee that it wouldn't be rejected and I would be back at zero. The chances were 1 in 100 that it might cause nerve damage. Okay. Not doing that. I'm now at the point, since hearing has lessen in good ear, that I need to look into an hearing aid.