The world's oldest amplifier uses positive-feedback, generally not a good idea (think of Regenerative radios!) But amplification in the mammalian cochlea is accomplished by feeding back signal to cilia with fast acting motor actuators at their base driven by the protein Prestin (discovered ~2000), which boost (same phase hopefully) cochlea wave amplitudes.

Asprin interferes with this process which is one reason why we shouldn't take the 'wonder drug' every day willy nilly as was previously suggested.

Now I know why I am deaf in my right ear - no positive feedback from the cilias! I'll have to replace that buggered valve now.

I'm prob legally deaf on left side (can barely hear a phone receiver) not because of cochlea, but lesion on auditory nerve which I believe was caused by radiation from a flip-phone 10 yrs ago, always held on that side.

I have been holding phones to the left ear for about twenty years now, due to industrial deafness on the starboard side. If one places their palm over a good ear and listens, this is what my right ear tends to receive now.

I guess I am still pretty lucky though. A lot of people are far worse off and that give me hope for the years to come.

Ears can get into awful trouble. Due to an infection, they actually drilled a hole through an eardrum when I was 7.

They are called "grommets". My daughter, now 45, had that done when she was 5.

They usually do that for 'gluey ear'. It won't work for my issue unfortunately and if it did I probably still wouldn't have it done. I am not a big fan of surgery.

..left..due to industrial..

They tried to pin that (single-sided sensorineural) on me; this after first doctor concluded "otosclerosis" (also wrong), I wasn't buying it because of the asymmetry and meekly suggested they "try imaging anyway" which yielded the (alarming) true cause: schwannoma.

Sometimes us techs have a better sense for differential diagnosis.