Pain Behind Ear and Tinnitus

[Cliona]

Hi Dr Nagler,
I have had tinnitus for the last 12 years or so. it's never bothered me too much as most of the time I can tune it out. It's in both ears and mosstly a humming sound.
About two wees ago it became quite loud in one ear and at the same time I got a pain behind my ear on the same side. The pain only occurs if I shake or jerk my head, gently. Flicking my hair out of my eyes gentle.
I went to my Dr. last week and he checked inside my ears, all ok. He doesn't think it's anything sinister but said to wait two weeks and see if it goes. That was a week ago, and it's not gone. The tinnitus is still loud and the mild pain behind my ear is still there.
I was wondering have you come across anything similar...the pain on movement thing? I have no headache with it.
Thanks
Cliona

 

[Dr. Nagler]

I was wondering have you come across anything similar...the pain on movement thing? I have no headache with it.

Hi Cliona -

Obviously without evaluating you myself I cannot be certain, but one possibility quickly comes to mind. When people develop asymmetrical intrusive tinnitus, the brain sort of goes into overdrive as it tries to figure out what's happening "on that side," and in so doing all sorts of stimuli get magnified, stimuli that would otherwise go unnoticed. For instance several years ago I had a patient with unilateral tinnitus who was also very bothered by excess moisture in his ear canal on that side. But it turns out that neither ear canal was moist; he was just overly sensitive to all sorts of sensations in and around his tinnitus ear. Perhaps, just perhaps, the same type of thing is going on with you. And hopefully your atypical pain behind your tinnitus ear will gradually resolve on its own, as did the "moisture" in my own patient's ear canal. If not, you will certainly want to follow-up with your doctor as he has suggested.

All the best -

stephen nagler