Any Ideas What Causes My Problems (Fullness in Ears, Tinnitus)?

[Hannes Alm]

Hi!

So I've been struggling with my ears for a couple of months now... I now turn to you guys, because 3 different specialists don't seem to be able to answer the problem..

In December I had two huge colds after each other and at last in January it went over.

It then began in January when I went to a club and received tinnitus the days after. This tinnitus is still present.
Weeks later I started to experience fullness and slight hearing loss in my right ear. This is still present today. I checked it up and my eardrum was burst. That healed eventually but my hearing loss and tinnitus was still present.

My current symptoms:
- Tinnitus in both ears - more in the right
- Fullness in right ear - sometime in the left.. it goes up and down
- Crushing and crackling sound when I swallow in both ears. Loud crackling - much louder than before my hearing problems started
- TTTS - my tympani muscles are having spasms when I have hiccups, yawn or hear loud transients (like closing the microwave etc.. - no dangerous sounds). This results in a bumping sound in both ears, which is uncomfortable.
- Hyperacusis. Very sensitive to sounds, because of my tendencies to isolate myself from sound most likely. Wearing headphones (with no sound) to protect my ears in noisy environments.

I visited 3 different ENT's and they checked me in many ways. In all cases, I had normal movement on my eardrum, no inflammation, normal tympanic pressure in my middle ear. They have checked with endoscopy and confirmed that the tail of my ear drum looks alright. I have done 5-6 hearing tests and all indicate normal hearing. Nothing lower than 10 dB loss in any of my ears.

- The first ENT believed it was my ear trumpet that was messing. She was sure of it.
- The next one thought it was some left over ear drops on my eardrums (which she could see) that caused my fullness in the ears.
- The third didn't have a clue. He just said. Everything looks normal, nothing serious that is causing your problems. Don't worry and it will be okay... hehe classic doctors...

They ALL rejected the theory that it might be the loud noise on the club that has caused damage to my ears, since I have NO hearing loss.


My theories:

- ETD
The crackling sounds, it feels like a pressure in my ears that sometimes pushes out air out of my ears.
When I tried valsalva, I could hear better after I did it. If I had severe hearing loss, I guess I wouldn't hear better after valsalva.
I also had 2 colds before I got my hearing problems. It is common that the ear drums get swollen after colds.
Though... All the tests are normal and don't indicate ETD.

- Ear drops on my eardrums

- Loud noise (noise-induced hearing loss) > though I don't have any hearing loss...

- Slight risk of borreliosis... Had an infection about 2 years ago. I cured it, but have heard that it can reactivate...


The thing that bothers me is that all test are pointing towards NORMAL. Everything is NORMAL. My hearing is NORMAL. NO HEARING LOSS. But STILL I have symptoms. I have fullness in my ears and tinnitus.

So now I want to ask you guys... Any ideas, similar experiences? Let your detective brains work!


Sorry for the long post...

 

[Contrast]

Have you heard of hidden hearing loss, and more important have they?

Here's some useful resources regarding hidden hearing loss, I'll provide sources where you can learn more.




http://hyperacusisfocus.org/innerear/

Research cited:

Hidden Hearing loss (cochlear synaptopathy) in the mammalian Cochlea, Liberman and Kujawa
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378595516302507

 

[Hannes Alm]

That's one theory.

However, I've now confirmed borreliosis. I will try to cure that and see if my symptoms will get better!

 

[Contrast]

That's one theory.

However, I've now confirmed borreliosis. I will try to cure that and see if my symptoms will get better!

This post is pretty ignorant considering you got tinnitus from a loud loud noise at a club, and that is a very common way to get it.

Here's some research to back up that theory on why tinnitus is caused by hearing loss in most cases. It's like phantom limb syndrome but instead of feeling a lost limb you feel lost hearing.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4208401/

Susan Shore a prominent tinnitus research from The University of Michigan who has a clinical trial happening for tinnitus now subscribes to this theory. Tinnitus onset is usually not a mystery, it's caused by hearing deficits.
https://medicine.umich.edu/dept/khri/susan-e-shore-phd


Also more info regarding tinnitus from the Hearing health foundation.

https://hearinghealthfoundation.org/what-is-tinnitus

 

[Autumnly]

They ALL rejected the theory that it might be the loud noise on the club that has caused damage to my ears, since I have NO hearing loss.

Unfortunately, ENTs can be pretty clueless when it comes to tinnitus. Even if you have a perfect audiogram, you can still have hearing loss and tinnitus is usually caused by some form of hearing loss. If you've been to several clubs or other loud events without hearing protection, chances are that you have some hearing loss.

However, it seems like you're dealing with several health issues. It could be that the club visit was the straw that broke the camel's back. Nonetheless, getting these other health issues fixed, might also reduce your tinnitus.

The best thing you can do is to protect your hearing, definitely wear earplugs in loud environments, it might be best to avoid them for some time.

 

[Greg Sacramento]

There's no doubt that hearing loss can associate to tinnitus and there are many things that can cause hearing loss including physical problems. Noise and medication use top the list for hearing loss, but there also could be other physical problems present as well. Any physical problems can increase hearing loss tinnitus as well as more loud noise exposure.

 

[Hannes Alm]

Okay so you guys are pretty sure that it can be a noise induced hearing loss above 8 khz in that case?

 

[Manex]

Generally Hearing tests are only going up to 8khz which is ridiculous because so much of tinnitus is above that and above 8khz is where the most likely hearing loss can occur. If you have hearing loss over 8khz it's going to make things sound a little bit muted as though your ears are partially covered.

That said, I would not discount the fullness feeling. This is something that many people do experience after getting tinnitus and the difference is that with the hearing loss it would be consistent. The fullness can sometimes open up and you suddenly hear differently before it closes. I've been dealing with this for over 20 years and last year for the first time an ENT suggested that this could be related to TMJ or jaw tension. I began doing a bunch of jaw exercises and I think it was starting to work. Unfortunately, totally unrelated a different doctor gave me Azithromycin unnecessarily and it totally damaged my hearing and quadrupled my tinnitus and I ended up stopping what I was doing because I simply couldn't handle anything at the time. I have not been able to resume the jaw-focused exercises. But my point is that there may be something to the TMJ or jaw focusing on the fullness. Basically search how to reduce TMJ and it might help. There were some key indicators which were interesting. I would have an itching in my ears and this was in some studies linked to the jaw.

The ear crackling and such. I have that too. I just got used to it, I've almost forgotten that not everyone has it. It might be related to the jaw as well, but it could be totally unrelated to all of this and be something like allergies.

 

[Contrast]

Okay so you guys are pretty sure that it can be a noise induced hearing loss above 8 khz in that case?

it can be hearing loss within 250-8khz (in complex noise) which they don't test for. I explained that too you but you dismissed it as "just a theory".