Could Fluid Behind Eardrum Be the Cause of My Tinnitus?

[Karam]

So I was at the GP yesterday because I thought I had an ear infection but he looked through my ears and he told me 1 of them has fluid behind the eardrum and the other one is clear also no signs of infection, he told me to wait for the ENT appointment. I'm pretty sure my tinnitus is noise induced but I've got different tones.

So could 1 of the tones (the low rumbling sound) possibly be caused by the fluid in the middle ear or not possible?

 

[GregCA]

Possible

 

[Ecip]

It could, yep. Best to wait and see what the ENT will say. Do you have edt?

 

[Mahr]

It sure is possible! When is your appointment with the ent?

 

[stophiss]

Unless someone can correct me, but I wouldn't believe an assessment by a GP that you have excessive fluid in your inner ear. Again, if someone can correct me, I would love to here. The reason is...all a GP can do is look in your ears for infection and external anomalies and he can't see beyond the ear drum. I believe an air percussion test is performed by an ENT to deduce excessive fluid in the middle ear.. Fluid is incompressible and changes the force/deflection of the ear drum and how this test works.

There is probably somebody on here that knows a lot about this and please post to share if you would.
Good luck OP

 

[volsung37]

@Karam
Fluid behind the eardrum can cause tinnitus. It is difficult to diagnose though. You can have fluid in the middle ear or fluid in the inner ear or both.
Another possible cause of low rumbling sound is mastoiditis ie infection of the mastoid bone.

 

[Robert44]

I have T on my right side. One time I had fluid behind the ear on my left side and had ringing on that side also. the ringing went away when it cleared up

 

[Karam]

Thanks people sorry for not replying, its best to wait for the ent, i will update when I visit them

 

[GregCA]

Fluid behind the eardrum can cause tinnitus. It is difficult to diagnose though. You can have fluid in the middle ear or fluid in the inner ear or both.

What the doctor checks is whether you have fluid in the middle ear (behind the ear drum).
The doctor doesn't check what's in the inner ear. Having fluid in the inner ear is healthy: it's the normal state of the inner ear. The fluid is called endolymph and perilymph. Without it your hearing wouldn't work. Leaking that fluid (if you have a fistula for example) is bad.

 

[KMM154]

I have had this. ENT sent me to have grommet fitted. Middle ear fluid - 0titis Media - is common and a grommet helps fluid drain. From my experience the fluid build up can certainly exacerate my tinnitus. But not sure it is the cause as my first experience of tinnitus was in my right ear and the fluid was in left ear. Now tinnitus is more pronounced in the left ear