HEMPSTEAD, NY – Where's the one place you should never kiss a baby -- or anyone else? The ear, according to a professor of audiology at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y.

Innocent kiss could lead to deafness

According to an article published on MSNBC.com an innocent kiss right on the ear opening creates strong suction that tugs on the delicate eardrum, resulting in a recently recognized condition known as "cochlear ear-kiss injury." Such a kiss can lead not only to permanent hearing loss, but a host of other troubling ear symptoms including ringing, sensitivity to sound, distortion and aural fullness.

How common is the injury?

Hofstra University's Dr. Levi Reiter has been studying the phenomenon ever since a woman came to him five years ago with a strange story about going deaf in one ear immediately after her five-year-old kissed her there. After a bit of research, though, he discovered another case of ear-kiss injury reported in the 1950s.

He has now identified more than 30 ear-kiss victims and is preparing to submit his most recent findings to the International Journal of Audiology and the International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology.

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