Is My Tinnitus Unilateral or Bilateral? I'm Confused and Here's Why

[Mr_Orange_3737]

I normally experience my tinnitus as centralized and even sort of slightly towards my left side.

However, when I hold my right ear closed (by pushing the tragus over the hole) it sounds like the high pitching ringing is coming from within my right ear. When I hold my left ear closed and pay attention to my left side, I hear a low humming sound from the left (I can still simultaneously hear the centralized tinnitus too).

I had a fungal ear infection a month ago and it presented a few interesting insights into this. The infection was on the right side and it would clog and unclog (blocking my hearing much like when I held my right ear closed) many times throughout the first week. Accordingly, the tinnitus would toggle between sounding centralized (when unclogged) and right sided (when clogged). There was this one day where the medicine drops would make the fungus extra soupy and it was clogging/unclogging many many times within just a few hours.

So do I have unilateral or bilateral tinnitus?

I also get these temporary high pitched spikes sometimes for 10-20 seconds and they often sound like they are on the left side, but they have also been on the right a few times too.

Another interesting detail is that I have hyperacusis and sometimes when I hear a loud sound, my ear drum will do this slight flutter move on the left side. I'm pretty sure this effect is only on the left.

 

[The Bucket Woman]

I have different tinnitus tones/sounds in each ear as well as a uniform high pitched noise that sounds like it's in my head vs in a specific ear. My ENT said what I described is bilateral.

 

[Mr_Orange_3737]

Interesting. I should also point out that my audiogram is pretty similar for both ears. My hearing is in the normal range with a slight dip in the 3-4 kHz area (on both sides).