stapes

My tinnitus is a side effect of a double stapedectomy, replacing the stapes bone in my middle ear with a titanium replacement. I have no regrets, my hearing went from 20% of normal to 80% and allowing me to have mostly normal hearing.

Is to talk about sound waves, the shape of the outer ear, the tympanic membrane, malleus, incus, stapes, cochlea, etc. At some point you arrive at: "and then the brain processes the signal in the auditory cortex and stuff."

I Googled around a bit and it seems like around 1900, a bunch of influential surgeons recommended that nobody should even consider stapes mobilization again, partly because the risk of infection, which could be fatal, was so great. So people collectively forgot about it until Rosen re-discovered it after antibiotics and safer surgery was available. But Rosen's technique seems to be different - moving the base of the stapes, rather than the small end connected to the incus bone.