Anyone's Ear Fullness Disappeared After a Year? Looking for Success Stories

I have had intense aural fullness for almost a year and I’m losing hope. Most accounts I read say that their ear fullness was only an issue early on, and resolved relatively quickly - within a few of months.

Have any members had fullness for over a year and improved? Did you find anything that helped? I have just started bioflavonoids, any other suggestions are welcome.

I had no issues with pressure until i developed pulsatile tinnitus - a month after my ‘normal’ tinnitus appeared.

 

Mine went away after 6 months but it still comes and goes. I found out that the hearing loss makes the ear create that fullness sensation, at least for me.

When I feel my ear is full, I put my hand over that ear or the other ear and the sensation goes away.

 

That’s interesting, covering my ear does help the fullness feeling, but it doesn’t make it go away completely. I’ve had this fullness pretty much 24/7, it’s driving me a bit crazy tbh.

I’m worried the fullness will be permanent if it’s caused by hearing loss, particularly because there has been no improvement. My right ear is worse hearing wise, although I only have mild hearing loss. I also do ok in speech recognition, that’s within normal range. I just don’t feel like the level of hearing loss I have should create such an intense pressure.

Do you have pulsatile tinnitus and does it correlate with your fullness?

 

Mine went away after 2,5 years...

 

So happy to hear it resolved for you. Sorry it took you 2.5 years though.

Do you have any hearing loss? I see your tinnitus was caused by acoustic trauma. I’m not sure what caused mine.

 

I hear people saying hearing aids stop the fullness feeling instantly.

 

Have you tried hearing aids @NYCGuy? How bad is your hearing loss?

 

Get your hearing tested. When I put my hearing aids in, the fullness instantly goes away and when I take them out, within a few seconds it is back.

 

Mine faded over 18 months. That was 13 years ago.

Didn’t correlate with hearing loss at all. As far as I’m aware, fullness is some kind of symptom/reaction that most commonly comes on with a sudden change like acoustic trauma.

Many people who have regular hearing loss don’t get fullness whilst many people without hearing loss do. Really depends on the cause.

 

I’m thinking that the fullness might be because I lost a fair chunk of hearing in one go. I hope my brain can figure it out soon(ish). The pressure can be painful at times.

 

My ear fullness comes and goes depending on noise exposure, and sometimes there is just ear fullness for no apparent reason.

 

Why do you think you lost a fair chunk of hearing in one go? Is there a test you’ve done to support that?

I’ve had moments where I’ve (crazily) believed that before during an anxious period, however it’s close to impossible unless you’re talking an explosion or 150 dB. It likely wouldn’t leave a significant permanent mark once recovered from the trauma.

As mentioned, lots of people have fullness from different ear issues.

 

Yeah so I had an audiogram done in July and all frequencies were between 0 & 10 dB. A few months later another test showed a dip from 4-8 khz - all frequencies below 15 dB, with the biggest dip at 4 kHz being 35 dB.

I had no significant noise trauma which is the most scary part.

 

Have you tried to get your neck muscles checked? There could be tension you don't know about.

Honestly I find the Tympanic Resonance Hypothesis to be very fascinating. Look it up and see if it matches you. It is a long read, but described me and most of my symptoms to a T. If you have a fear of sound, honestly who wouldn't after being on here, I wonder if some people have a knee jerk reaction to clenching their muscles in response to sound. Dry needling of Trapezius/occipital have really shown me, how much, lower muscles can affect the upper ones. I interacted with the author. He said it could be a three way relationship. If this isn't you, I am sorry.

 

Very interesting, this actually sounds like me. When my tinnitus began, I became increasingly aware of the tension in my jaw and neck, particularly the right side where I get the fullness. No matter how much I massage it, the tension remains.

Really appreciate the suggestion. I will read up on it. A long read actually sounds quite nice, these days I have too much free time on my hands.

 

If I massage my neck muscles enough, fluid drains, from ear/sinuses.

 

Yeah that is exactly where a 'noise notch' appears after years of abuse, not suddenly.
This is strange.

It's quite possible you've always had it or it was an incorrect audiogram. Not sure how else that could happen, either way if it was hearing loss, fullness could still fade as it's usually correlated with the initial cause, not the hearing loss itself.

Re: this 4-8 kHz dip suddenly appearing, this exact scenario happened with me, but it turned out to be the audiologist added a 25 dB noise notch at 4-6 kHz in one ear that wasn't there. I don't know if their intention was to sell a product or they were lazy, but ultimately they were wrong.

I had 3 other audiograms at different locations that ear was at 0 dB - 5 dB across that range. Like you, I was obviously confused and upset when I found out, but quickly learned it was false.

In your case, it is also possible that with the first test you had, the audiologist was lazy and kinda skipped over the bad ear after seeing the first was good. Thus the 2nd audiogram discovered the truth.

Have you had a second opinion?

I've never seen someone getting a sudden noise notch over a short period without an explosion or acoustic trauma (usually temporary hearing loss). You can obviously get other types of hearing loss suddenly, but a noise notch is very specific.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

 

I’m starting to notice I get ear fullness if I’m wearing earplugs for an extended duration (1 hr at least). Once I take the plugs off, the fullness in my left ear sets in.

 

So at my first audiogram, my right ear had the worst tinnitus, but my hearing was better in that ear regardless. Both ears were measured and a conductive hearing test which was in line with the other test done through headphones.

Obviously, I cannot speak for how well the audiologist did her job, but she herself had tinnitus and I felt she was quite thorough and probably gave me some of the best advice I’ve had to date. This was at a private place who are quite keen to get people hearing aids for obvious reasons, so it would seem a bit unusual.

I then had my second audiogram done, and a third one shortly after with the same results - the notch from 4-8 kHz.

I might be completely wrong, but I believe my hearing loss happened around a month after my normal tinnitus, and it was accompanied by the fullness, sever nausea, and pulsatile tinnitus. This might be unusual, but it sits best with my experience. I think my normal tinnitus was the precursor to my hearing loss.

I have found myself turning up the radio slightly when there are other noises around& things sound pretty dull out my right ear now, when they didn’t at onset.

I am pretty confused tbh, and very upset that after 10 months of waiting on an ENT I have now been discharged without even being seen. I’ve been left guessing what happened to my hearing, seems like I’ll never get the answer.

 

Yes, my ear fullness improves with earplugs, and is far worse after I take them out.

 

I have done about four audiograms over 3 years. It is scary how mine match exactly the same over three years. Basically perfect, even the extended have matched. No hyperacusis. LDLs we're up 100+, yet I have intrusive tinnitus. Kinda throws a dent in the only reason intrusive tinnitus happens is because of hyperacusis.

 

Can you link your tinnitus to any major noise event? Given how unique each individual case is, it’s no wonder they haven’t fully figured it out yet. I’m hoping that at least one of the treatments in the pipeline at least helps lower the volume. Trying to manage expectations though.

In order to move on from this I’ve decided that I either need the volume to decrease, or the fullness to go away. Although obviously I’d prefer both lol.

 

No, no noise events. I don't wear headphones, I hate concerts, I listened to sports talk. I really feel it was from Prozac or weaning from benzos or Anafranil.

 

Hi Benjaminbb,

Did you do anything to help the fullness improve, other than give it time? Did you also have crunching/clicking type ETD sounding issues? I have sudden fullness following a recent unexpected noise event (accidentally had phone on speaker phone at highest volume and placed up to ear). This was a week ago, and ever since I have fullness, pressure, and what feels like Eustachian tube dysfunction in that ear. I have a history of ETD issues, but never in response to a sound event before.

Do you recall if it just gradually faded or was the improvement more all at once toward the 18-month mark?

Thanks!
Amy

 

Hey, I think it's pretty unlikely that this would have anything to do with ETD. I've known several people to get this effect from acoustic trauma, like yours.

For me it was gradual, maybe the fullness event went away quicker than the pain.

Either way I've seen people recover from short events like that in anywhere between 2 days to 2 years. Commonly being 2 weeks. It will be best if you just focus on your life and don't think about it too much while it heals. Just be safe and gentle with your ears obviously. I noticed it could easily be re-triggered from loud sounds or long medium level exposure. You're more than likely not going to get 2 year long hyperacusis from this, just wait it out! Don't read too much on here as people have a lot of extreme cases.

 

Thanks. Yeah, I know to be careful with how much time I spend around here. I got my original tinnitus back in 2011, which was very severe and intrusive. I used to read here a lot then. Although it was helpful to feel less alone with what I was going through, it was also easy to become super disheartened by the level of suffering and lack of positive recovery stories.

It is odd, because ears hadn't been much of an issue for a while, but it has been one thing after another since a recent long driving trip. First it was musical tinnitus (which is still there by improved), and now this fullness and pressure following the speaker phone incident. I am tempted to think it is largely psychosomatic re the current fullness, but the objective cracking and the degree of pressure may indicate it is more than that. In any event, your story gives me hope that this, too, shall pass (or at least improve). Thanks!

 

If you are based in the US, you might give Optinose's XHANCE nose spray a chance. It is currently trialed for ETD but already approved for other conditions.

 

Thanks! I already use Flonase, but I hadn't heard of this XHANCE. The delivery system seems like it could really help my ETD issues. Much appreciated!

 

Glad to help. I'd love to try it for my ear fullness and ETD problems but it is not EMA approved as usual. Not available in EU. Do let us know if it works!