I Recorded the Clicking Sound I Can Make in My Ears — Does Anyone Know What This Is?

[Chipdip]

This crackling, rumbling, stretching stuff I can voluntarily do with my ears doesn't feel normal at all.

It's always the same time every night when I'm lying in bed I can make this clicking sound in both my ears.

I've also got terrible tinnitus too obviously and can do the classic jaw pitch change thing. The thing with the clicking though is that I can do it without moving my jaw at all.

Here's the recording you'll have to put the volume on max to hear it:

 

[Digital Doc]

I listened to the clip a few times. This does not sound like noise induced tinnitus, but rather something with your jaw. Do you have jaw pain? Oral surgeons deal with this, and this could be related to the TMJ.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/tmj/symptoms-causes/syc-20350941

 

[Chipdip]

Yeah I sometimes get jaw pain when chewing. One time I had my left ear (same one that's clicking in the video) go temporarily deaf after chewing something crunchy and the tinnitus skyrocketed in that ear too. The weird thing about the clicking though is that I'm not using my jaw at all to do it. I learned that some people can open their eustachian tubes manually I'm thinking maybe it could be that?

 

[Lilah]

I'm lying in bed I can make this clicking sound in both my ears.

What are you doing to make the clicking sound? Opening and closing mouth? Does the sound come for your jaw/mouth or the ears?

 

[Chipdip]

What are you doing to make the clicking sound? Opening and closing mouth? Does the sound come for your jaw/mouth or the ears?

It comes from my ears. I don't really know what I'm doing to make the sound whatever it is in my ears is just some voluntary clicking thing I can do.

Oh also I have a sort of 24/7 pain uncomfortable feeling right around my eye too. This all happened after I did quite a bit of nitrous oxide last year.

 

[DakZer]

This could be Eustachian Tube Dysfunction.

 

[Bruhdeel]

Look man, these guys in the comments clearly have no idea what you're talking about or what they're talking about. I literally experience the exact same thing as you, but in my case the clicking and rumbling feels normal to me.

That recording that you made sounds like all of my recordings, the fact that you can record it is f*ckin cool right? for me it doesn't sound the same in my head as my recordings. I know it feels like it isn't normal but trust me it is, some people are born with the ability to flex their tensor tympani muscle, you're one of the lucky ones

 

[Redouan]

I can do exactly the same, it's the sounds of opening the eustachian tube. It's hard to describe how to do this but I think with a little pressure from your throat/noise I can make my ears clicking on demand. This has to do with Eustachian Tube Dysfunction, big chance that this is caused by TMJ.

 

[Matchbox]

My ears do that when I open the tubes and ever since hyperbaric oxygen therapy waaaaaaaaaaay more.

 

[Dennis66]

I have a similar problem. Everytime I talk I get this click. Even when I open my mouth for a little bit (no more than a few milliters). I went to a TMD specialist but he couldn't find anything wrong.

It is annoying as hell as it is totally random. Sometimes it is there in almost every word and then the next I can say a complete sentence without actually noticing it.

 

[Kriszti]

I have a similar problem. Everytime I talk I get this click. Even when I open my mouth for a little bit (no more than a few milliters). I went to a TMD specialist but he couldn't find anything wrong.

It is annoying as hell as it is totally random. Sometimes it is there in almost every word and then the next I can say a complete sentence without actually noticing it.

Some type of myoclonus? Probably stapedial? You can look it up how it sounds and maybe you have something similar.

 

[Ed209]

I listened to the clip a few times. This does not sound like noise induced tinnitus, but rather something with your jaw. Do you have jaw pain? Oral surgeons deal with this, and this could be related to the TMJ.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/tmj/symptoms-causes/syc-20350941

It's the sound of his Eustachian tubes opening. I can do exactly the same thing, voluntarily, and so can most experienced divers. It means he has control of his tensor veli palatini muscles. I think most people can learn to do this. I can also hold mine open and blow air through them.

It's definitely nothing to do with his jaw clicking.

 

[Greg Sacramento]

Oh also I have a sort of 24/7 pain uncomfortable feeling right around my eye too. This all happened after I did quite a bit of nitrous oxide last year.

Nitrous oxide - non proper slow down time towards end of use. From this, nitrous oxide can cause nerve eye pain behind eyes, hearing impairment, stapes disarticulation-blood in your middle ear, which is the area behind your eardrum, serous otitis and displacement of a tympanic membrane.

In the middle ear cavity both pressure and volume increase, the tympanic membrane and the Eustachian tube. This results in bulging of the intact drum with displacement of a tympanic membrane. As well as post-nasal changes affecting Eustachian tube function due to the endotracheal tube being on one side.

The good news is improvement should happen within 2 years.

 

[Dennis66]

I have this sound when I talk. I have noticed that when I close my nose and try to talk the clicking sound is not there. So I guess it is a pressure problem in my Eustachian tube.

 

[Mr Eastblom]

This crackling, rumbling, stretching stuff I can voluntarily do with my ears doesn't feel normal at all.

It's always the same time every night when I'm lying in bed I can make this clicking sound in both my ears.

I've also got terrible tinnitus too obviously and can do the classic jaw pitch change thing. The thing with the clicking though is that I can do it without moving my jaw at all.

Here's the recording you'll have to put the volume on max to hear it:

How are you doing now @Chipdip? Can you still click your ears the same way?

 

[Mr Eastblom]

It's the sound of his Eustachian tubes opening. I can do exactly the same thing, voluntarily, and so can most experienced divers. It means he has control of his tensor veli palatini muscles. I think most people can learn to do this. I can also hold mine open and blow air through them.

It's definitely nothing to do with his jaw clicking.

I think this answer is closest to the reality. It makes sense that the tensor veli platini muscle is activated by will opening the Eustachian tube. And the clicking is a consequence of that, due to the tympani moving because of a pressure difference?

I can also do this. I got issues with ear fullness after an acoustic shock 8 months ago. So I likely learned to flex the tensor veli platini to get rid of the fullness. The feeling comes right back again though, probably due to a tensed up tensor tympani muscle.