Ear tubes are a very common procedure; last I heard about 2 million are placed each year. Your story is very typical; if fluid was present beforehand, parents often report dramatic improvements in hearing and speech, and behavior too, after placement. However, studies show that kids who don’t get tubes during the crucial years for speech development usually catch up with those who do receive them. There is some debate about whether we are doing them too often; the indications now for the operation are that there must be a 30 dB loss on both sides for 3 months. I can tell you that if the average adult had that much hearing loss and you told him it would disappear with tube placement, he or she wouldn’t want to wait 3 hours, let alone three months.

Since she is only three, speech therapy may not be necessary, but you should definitely go for an evaluation and if necessary some followup speech therapy. It is amazing what a difference a few months of therapy can make in a child who needs it.

As you can see from many of the comments here, this is really not uncommon. It is sad that even educated parents don’t know this and can go through a lot of fear and worry over what usually turns out to be not very serious. You don’t say but I hope the doctor tried to reassure you about this. Even then, I can’t blame you for continuing to fear the worst. Glad it turned out well in the end, and I’m sure she’ll catch up quickly.

During this whole episode, I talked with my freshman roomate from MIT, who’s deaf in one ear. Apparently she was rejected from multiple private kindergardens because they assumed she was retarded. It’s amazing what hearing loss can masquerade as, and, as you and others pointed out, what speech issues can be a sign of.