To add one anecdote, this seems to be hard even for children. One of the kids in my family had a second adenotomy (first one grew back), and to improve hearing

To add one anecdote, this seems to be hard even for children. One of the kids in my family had a second adenotomy (first one grew back), and to improve hearing longer term, they also inserted a tympanostomy tube. Hearing did improve a lot, but the kid had regular meltdowns in the months afterwards. He described it as a loud noise that is constantly screaming directly into his head. Eventually, things calmed down, and things are good now. His parents still aren’t sure it was a good idea because his other ear worked fine mostly, and the docs said his speech development was excellent anyway.