When I Swallow I Hear a Crackle, Will It Ever Go Away?

[Matthew Perrotta]

I'm only 14 I don't know if any of this is normal, I've had what I believe to be mild tinnitus for 2 and a half months and I am worried any help?

 

[glynis]

It sounds like mucous from a cold etc.
Get the doctor check your ears and a mucous linctus might help you.
Ears can take a while to settle down but the crackles should go away.....lots of love glynis

 

[Karl28]

Sounds like Eustachian Tube Dysfunction.

 

[uae96]

Yeah I had that for a while after I got a cold and it lasted like a month so yes it could go away

 

[Owen]

It probably is part of ETD.

Sadly, many of the tests for ETD don't actually work very effectively. Audiograms and tympanometry are the 2 most likely tests an eNT will conduct, but these only really work properly with total blockage and/or effusion. If you have neither, they will tell you everything is normal, even if it isn't. It only takes a minor problem to interfere with it.

A test you can do that most ENTs don't employ is the Toynbee manoeuvre. It is safer than the Vasalva and actually tells you more about the state of the tubes. Effectively, you pinch your nose and swallow. If everything is working normally, you should feel the air drawn out of the ears by the vacuum created. If you then release your nose and swallow again, you should feel everything normalise. It may take 2 or 3 swallows of each, but this is still normal. If it doesn't, you have a problem with ETD.

I have had chronic ETD for over a year now and the standard tests come back normal, even though the Toynbee does not work in my right ear at all. I have also flown 4 times since it started and equalising my ears was almost impossible the first 2 times and excruciatingly painful on descent and the other times, I could hear this continual bubbling and popping from my right ear during both the ascent and descent. It is slowly getting better and I mean really slowly, so you have to be very patient with all of it. Apparently it isn't that uncommon for it to take 6+ months to fully recover from ETD and that depends on the cause...

Time is your friend and at 14, you have lots of it.

 

[Sarah Russett]

I know that many people here associate crackling in the ear with ETD; however, crackling in your ear only when swallowing and yawning is quite normal. It's just the Eustachian tubes opening and closing. If you hear crackling more often than that, or your hearing is muffled and your ears feel plugged then you might have ETD.. That crackling from swallowing is pretty normal and normally we don't hear it because we don't pay attention to it, so the sound is minimized in our brains. That said, if you have actual tinnitus (like a hissing or ringing that you hear all the time), it is possible that it is something to look into.

 

[Steve]

Hi Matthew,

A lot of people can hear it. It's probably the pressure equalising as you swallow.

With tinnitus we can be attuned to body sounds a bit more than we previously were, nothing at all to worry about.

 

[Matthew Perrotta]

It is only in my right ear, which is the ear I had tinnitus in first

 

[Hariz Nonis]

It is only in my right ear, which is the ear I had tinnitus in first

Exactly like me. I wouldn't be too worried, nothing worse has happened to me since I experienced the crackling sound. I'm not too sure if it is ETD, and since your right ear is the one that has T, you should see an ENT. You're still young, and you've only had this for a few months, so you have a lot of reasons to be positive still.

 

[Matthew Perrotta]

Will I get used to it again?

 

[Hariz Nonis]

Will I get used to it again?

Get used to the crackling sound?

 

[Matthew Perrotta]

Yep

Get used to the crackling sound?

 

[Ed209]

It's just your Eustachian tubes opening and it literally happens to everyone. It's why they tell you to suck a sweet on a plane. Don't obsess over it because it's unnecessary.

Have you ever noticed how your tongue sits uncomfortably in your mouth?

Now you will but you didn't until just. This is how this kind of selective thinking works.

 

[linearb]

I'm not convinced this is a sign of anything bad. It's happened to me for many years and I know a lot of people with zero ear problems who say that they know exactly what I'm talking about. I don't believe (in my case) that it's "ETD" because my eustachian tubes open and drain completely normally.

 

[Ed209]

@linearb

You are right, it has nothing to do with ETD unless you're experiencing pressure issues. The cracking is normal and is experienced by all; unless you have mucous blocking them and then you may hear it one ear or neither.

 

[J M]

I remember having bilateral inner ear infection in 2012, and for months, it sounded like I was talking through my Eustachian tube.

 

[Hariz Nonis]

@Matthew Perrotta you shouldn't be worried at all. I've been hearing this crackling sound for months, to the point where I feel weird when I don't hear it instead. It's nothing serious, and as long as you take care of your ears you should be fine.

 

[Hariz Nonis]

you may hear it one ear or neither.

I only hear it in one ear most of the time, nothing serious right?

 

[Ed209]

I only hear it in one ear most of the time, nothing serious right?

Sometimes I only get it in one ear but it's because of my allergies my ENT told me. The crackle sounds are the normal function of your Eustachian tubes opening, which is what you want to normalise the pressure in your middle ear. Try making a bowl of boiling water and put some Vicks in it, or a menthol crystal, and then breathe it in.

It's certainly not anything to worry about, and may only become more of a problem if you develop the feeling of fullness or feel pressure on your ear drum. This would indicate your Eustachian tube/s is/are not draining effectively.