Does Ear Fullness = Hearing Loss?

Hi everyone!

I have been dealing with tinnitus, hyperacusis and ear fullness 24/7 since my acoustic trauma 3.5 months ago. The ear fullness doesn't bother me as much as the tinnitus & hyperacusis at the moment, but I have seen it mentioned that ear fullness is usually due to hearing loss. Is that true?

I only ask because I got a standard audiogram done 5 days after the incident and I had no hearing loss (max 10 dB at some frequencies), but they only tested up to 8 kHz. I got the speech test done too and passed so I think that means I don't have hidden hearing loss. They also tested my ear pressure and it was normal.

The fullness started when my tinnitus did on the ear that was affected by the trauma, then the other ear clogged up about 1.5 days later. Does this mean I do in fact have hearing loss or could it be something else?

 

I wouldn't think so, both my ears felt plugged at onset and I had good hearing. I went on Prednisone and took Allegra. It cleared up pretty quick.

 

Doesn't have to. ETD, even without negative ear pressure can cause a weird feeling. TMJ, and neck muscles can play a part. If my ears feel full, I start massaging my neck muscles and they drain. Or take Sudafed PE. So no. Sometimes on this board you will get the feeling it means it, by reading comments, but it isn't always a shift in hearing. I had Trapezius dry needling. For days after my hearing was different between ears. Like very noticeable. Once the muscles went back into their more natural state, the hearing came back.

 

I have had the ear fullness sensation in my left ear since my tinnitus onset 13 months ago now. It's really quite irritating to constantly ”feel” the ear and I've been wondering if it will go away.

What I have noticed is that there seems to be some pressure related issue with my (I'm assuming...) Eustachian tube since if a door is closed quickly in a small room (such as bathroom) I can often feel my left ear react to the ”air movement” (or whatever we shall call it) – it's as if I can feel the ear drum move when the air hits the ear, if that makes sense.

I'm wondering if there's something that can be done about this as this definitely ”movement or crawling sensation” when closing a door seems related to problems outside of the cochlea.

At the same time it seems ear fullness can happen due to cochlear damage:

”...a constellation of symptoms that include not just hearing loss but also ringing in the ears, sound sensitivity, a feeling of aural fullness and even chronic ear pain.”

That ringing in your ears? Don't assume it will just fade away

But if the cause of the ear fullness is (at east partially) due to pressure problems in the Eustachian tube, maybe it can be fixed?

 

Just a side note, it's just so disappointing that this article is from 2015 and it's 2022, and no measures whatsoever against noise volumes have been taken anywhere. For live music, alarm volumes, construction etc. Everything seems to be getting louder instead...

 

The fullness does not equal hearing loss.

The fullness means something is wrong with your ears. It can be inflammation, it can be a reaction to loud sound... it's a physical reaction before noise.

 

Totally agree on this! I think one of the reasons – or maybe even the main reason – is that very few without ear/hearing issues seem to understand how devastating it can be since it's so difficult to relate to these conditions that only those of us who have them are so very well aware of. I mean it's not like you have lost your legs which people immediately can understand affects one's life in a big way.

This crap with tinnitus and other ear problems is too abstract to comprehend when you don't have it, thus I think many warnings are being done for deaf ears (if you pardon the pun).

”You look fine, what is the problem?”

Not that harsh always, but...

I do get a lot of sympathy too, but sometimes I just wish we could share our heads with one another, if only for a short time... Would make peace and understanding so much easier I think.

Sorry, I digress...

Need to talk more about hearing health for sure! Such life changing symptoms. I feel like I'd like to go out and talk about it in schools to make our young more aware about it. But maybe (hopefully) there will be a cure by the time some of them get tinnitus and/or hearing loss etc. Not that it's something that shouldn't be avoided anyway.

 

Yeah absolutely, no one really gets it. Even if they have a hearing issue themselves as well... I have a friend who had SSHL and is almost deaf in one ear, with NO tinnitus or other ear problems and she still thinks that I'm not dealing with it so well that I avoid loud bars and such and my mood is always down while having fluctuating tinnitus with near-perfect hearing...

It's even more frustrating when they think it's some psychological problem, depression, fear of people, anxiety etc. But we ourselves know it's a pathological problem, as if you have broken your knees so you don't need to put them into too much pressure.

 

Hi @Ngo13,

Did your feeling of fullness ever go away or improve?

I had an acoustic trauma 1 week ago from a motorbike backfiring and my left ear has felt blocked/full since.

I can’t seem to find much information on this and as my audiogram was only slightly worse for the left side (20-25 dB), I’m not sure what my outlook is or if the fullness is ‘caused’ by hearing loss.

Also, if it’s any consolation for you, I’ve had tinnitus for 2.5 years and found that it’s improved a lot this past year - to a point where it doesn’t affect me much. But I totally understand the psychological hell it puts us all through.

 

Could you describe your tinnitus noise(s) you heard from first onset, what improvements occurred and, finally, what you hear now?

That would be useful to know.

 

It was a sudden onset of a high pitch ring ‘inside’ my head one night.

Honestly I didn’t see much improvement the first year - but since then it just got gradually quieter to a point where now I only notice it when I’m in a quiet room etc.

The main improvement is the perception of it and it having less of a psychological effect even when you do notice it. Avoiding silence helped me cope for a long time but habituation seems to be the only ‘solution.’

For example, now with this ear fullness I’m experiencing, it’s constantly on my mind 24/7 and the only thing I can think about - hoping it improves faster than the tinnitus did...

 

My fullness certainly isn't as bad as it was in the beginning, but it never went away, no. I suspect some type of chronic inflammation is at play, maybe in part due to TTTS.

Thank you for the hope though. I'm 19 months in and it hasn't really improved the way I was hoping yet. I am getting better at managing it though.

 

I have TTTS too & I believe the fullness may be the tensor tympani stuck in tension mode. I've noticed it worsens with loud noise, & very, very slowly gets better with a quiet environment. Maybe some extra ear protection would help?

Cheers,
Maddy

 

I’ve been looking into TTTS. How would you describe the feeling of that?

As I’m not really sensitive to loud noise (unless it’s very loud or high pitched, as I’m defensive due to my tinnitus - but not because it causes pain etc.).

At the moment, sound doesn’t seem to affect the fullness. If anything it almost feels slightly better when noise is coming from the left side.

Would you say the fullness from TTTS is constant? As I seem to get random, brief relief throughout the day (but this quickly dissipates) - feels like the ‘pressure’ is balanced between both sides temporarily.

And yeah I’ve certainly been trying to reduce noise exposure, wearing noise-cancelling headphones when I’m out.

 

That's how I was over the last 18 months with louder tinnitus until the last few weeks.

Things got much worse. But it's not just a matter of being sensitive to loud sounds, it's also that they usually sound a lot louder now than they really are, so they aren't necessarily even that loud and can still sound uncomfortably loud. The sound of those dishes clanging sounds a lot louder and uncomfortable now. That's hyperacusis. And it varies from one person to the next in how bad it can be and what sounds might seem uncomfortably loud. Sometimes there's actual immediate and/or following pain, but it's only been mild for me at this point, usually just fading away in a short time if I feel any. But it concerns me as these conditions can worsen.

In the last couple months, I'm experiencing the TTTS eardrum fluttering, sometimes in response to someone speaking (so it will flutter quite a bit) and sometimes spontaneously without a sound stimulus (flutters might be 20 second, 60 seconds, or more apart). Only one ear ever flutters during an episode for me. It did it just a little in the morning these last couple days without sound stimulus, but Friday, it was going crazy fluttering over a dinner conversation. I haven't experienced the fullness that some people do.

I definitely have moderate hearing loss going back 18 months and even longer, but that has not caused me to feel any ear fullness.

With these different issues and variable tinnitus from day to day, it makes it even more difficult to habituate, maybe impossible. Lots of anxiety and insomnia.