Can You See Past the Eardrum?

So I saw a third ENT doctor today. Pretty much the same thing over and over again, he looks in my ear, doesn't see anything and tells me there's nothing he can do.

I asked him how can he be so sure there's no fluid past the eardrum.

He tells me that he can see through the eardrum.

Is this true/possible? I thought you needed some sort of test to see that far in.

 

Sounds crazy to me, but I'm not a doctor, so I don't know... Though I do know that sometimes there are signs of fluid past the eardrum even if you can't see it.

If you're worried about middle ear fluid on the other side of the eardrum, visit an audiologist office (much quicker get into than an ENT) and have a tympanometry test done. (Honestly, they should have done this in the ENT office anyway if you were reporting any strange ear feeling symptoms in addition to the ringing.) Irregular results are a pretty good sign of middle ear fluid. They won't be able to do much for you if that's the case (they specialize in hearing aids and so forth), but at least then you'll know and have something to go back and complain to an ENT about...

 

Yes it's possible: the ear drum isn't completely opaque. There is some transparency to it. You don't see very well through it, but generally enough to see if there if fluid in the middle ear.

 

I see. Thank you.

 

If you shine a bright light on it you can. One neurotologist I went to had a little camera that projected it to a TV screen. You (the patient) could see the eardrum as it was being inspected.

 

I had that done as well, and it was possible to see past my eardrum.

 

Any good ENT doctor can "see" through the eardrum and identify landmarks etc. Some eardrums are more transparent than others. Many practices have a microscope so where direct visualisation might be difficult through the otoscope, the microscope offers a whole new world