Ear Pain

Hello,

My tinnitus started more than a year ago due to noise-induced hearing loss. I have a 25 dB dip in left and 15 dB dip in right ear, both at 6000 hZ. With tinnitus also came fullness and mild pain in ear, the latter lasting only for an hour a day. Approximately 2-3 months ago ears started to hurt more and now they hurt for almost the whole day. My ENT said I have chronic pharyngitis, tonsil hyperthophy and vasomotor rhinitis. He presribed trimethoprim and fluticasone furoate nose spray, none of which helped. He also said sensorinerual hearing loss and earache aren't connected. What do you guys think?

 

If you had all these conditions you would have known something about at least some of them well before your sound injury. Did you have ANY symptoms likely related to these things one year ago?

"vasomotor rhinitis"?

 

Rhinitis is a condition that includes a runny nose, sneezing, and nasal stuffiness. When hay fever or allergies are not causing these symptoms, the condition is called nonallergic rhinitis. One type of nonallergic rhinitis is called vasomotor rhinitis.

Well, I do get the symptoms for rhinitis every year during spring, so normally I thought it was an allergic reaction but according to ENT its a nonallregic rhinitis (vasomotor rhinitis).

Also, my tonsils became enlarged due to tonsilitus two years ago and stayed like that since. But I didn't know I have pharyngitis.

Anyways, I went to see my ENT again today and he said the problem lies in my deviated nasal septum and due to me breathing through my mouth. However, I don't understand how this became a problem only a year ago and not already as I was a kid, since I was born with this deformation? I'm 20 years old.

P.S. - my left ear hurts more than my right ear.

 

The tonsils, being part of the lymphatic system are associated with clearing of infection, so its possible your rhinitis has an infective, or at least immune-related component. Vasomotor as a word usually relates to vascular tone, as in constriction/dilation. In the nasal passages/nasopharynx, increased permeability of blood vessels can result in leakage of serum/mucus giving rise to a chronic rhinitis. Such permeability usually comes from allergic type syndromes which can be extrinsic (external source: pollens etc) or intrinsic (internal: Immune complexes, antibodies etc). Internally you can have auto-immune disease or more likely low-grade infection, which your tonsils are busy hoovering up. Some of the surrounding tissue becomes involved hence the pharyngitis, and the nasal drip. hard to really say if your rhinitis is one or the other, but it could be a bit of both. Of course glancing off this region and reaching up into your ears are the Eustachian tubes, and where there is soft tissue there is a pathway for infection (viral, bacterial, fungal or whatever) and with that comes inflammation. Maybe its time for the tonsils to go?

 

Do you have hyperacusis? If so, look into TTTS.

 

@PaulBe: I don't know, ENT said nothing about removing tonsils. Also, I've never had an ear infection. He said two options are 1) to do a nose job (correct the deviated septum) - however, he said my nose isn't deformed to a point that it would need surgery and 2) to do some test (I don't remeber the name), which would be done when there isn't so much pollen in the air. Anyway, before considering those two options I must use a spray that contais glucocorticosteroids.

@Gio Makyo: Thank for your answer, but I don't have hyperacusis.

 

I've read that a lot of members on this forum have/had symptoms similar to mine (tinnitus, ear pain, fullness), but everyone says that these symptoms will subside over time. However, my symptoms have been persisting for over a year now.

 

Ou

our ears work in mysterious ways..

 

The infection could be locked up in your tonsils, but with local inflammation spreading outward into surrounding tissues. I don't know, and I probably shouldn't have so much to say because I don't know your situation, but I just think you potentially have a reversible cause and should rule it out. Sometimes infections can take a low-grade or chronic path where the expected standout symptoms (fevers, seats etc) don't always occur with enough intensity to be noticed overtly. Medicine has a (frequently neglected) duty to rule out the reversible.

 

Sweats!! Not seats! Spellcheck and context should meet sometime.

 

@PaulBe, thanks for your answer. I will definetly ask my ENT if I should have my tonsils removed.

I also discovered one thing, it's really strange and I don't know why it works, but when I put earplugs in my ears, they stop aching. It's like the pain I feel deep inside the ear and behind it dissipates and I only feel slight pressure and discomfort from earplugs.

 

Being honest I'm no doctor but I also suffer sometimes from ear pain as well as tinnitus and I feel like they are connected its like when my head hurts i can't help but feel like its all connected. I don't know this from an academic standing point but I do know this from personal experience. I too have a hearing loss so when I suffer from ear pain a lot more often and unpredictably than people with regular hearing so I feel like its all to do with my hearing loss. So it could all be connected. I have to agree with Erik though because anxiety really does make T worse as well as sometimes cause pain.

 

I really want to know about this. At the 1.5 month mark my ears felt so full and pressurized i wanted to ram a pen in my ears before they blew up. Yea seriously it really felt like that. Now at month 4 since god awful T from a rock concert the ears are not full now but are "sore" raw feeling and have a slight pressurized feeling. It does flutuate in intensity but never goes. I can't pop out the last of the pressure i feel.

What I want to know is should i expect the discomfort / pain to ever go? The side of my head area above my ears also can have a dull ache to it like a headache. Anyone have that? I'm also experiencing tingling burning of the scalp which comes and goes. Any sharing of your experience is appreciated

 

@Dave AUS hi I have the same prob as you from attending an event in a club.

It has been 6 months and I still have the pressure and full feeling which changes thru-out the day. Some times it hurts.

Some people on this forum say their ears have healed but it seems everyone has a different healing period or time.

Fingers crossed you and I get better soon. I know how you feel. Take care!

 

@hmelj are your ears feeling better with pressure and fullness ?

 

@Dave AUS hi, are your ears better- pain and pressure?

 

Hi @MJC my ears are very much the same. While I find the noise very annoying it's the aching soreness of my inner ear that annoys me possibly most of all and nothing you can get a break from. I find myself clenching my jaw and the sides of my head with headache. Not sure which occurs first. I'm back on the idea there just must be something that can be done. I can pop my ears and just for a few seconds I experience less pressure in my ears. The doctor did prescribe serc to reduce swelling but I don't think that is the answer. This is now 6 months for me and my day to day life is still changed. How are you MJC?

 

Hi @Dave AUS
Good to hear from you. It has been 6 months for me since I damaged my ears in
a club for a work event. My blocked ears and pressure is still the same - it's the pain that is the most difficult. It affects everyday living.

Some days it's not bad and other days it's so bad the pain like my ears are about to burst!

The NHS have discharged me so I am not sure what else I can do. They say they can't find anything and that I have to live with the tinnitus.

I've just started taking homeopathy - Ferrum Phos 30C so I will see how it goes you never know.

See link below which could be helpful

http://www.vithoulkas.com/ear-diseases-of

I will keep on touch with you and let you know of anything helps me

Wishing you all the best

Thanks
MJ

 

Hi MJ,
Has the ear pain subsided by now?

 

Hi guys, @Dave AUS i too have an inside the ear soreness like its sensitive to touch as well. In addition i have tinnitus that comes and goes, as well as pain behind ear and behind head. I also have a weird phenomenon with "flashing of lights" that i see when i close my eyes ( my ophthalmologhist says it may be the jelly behind my eye seperating from retina). So i too suffer with you guys on a daily basis and i dont tell anyone cause they dont understand. I feel better however , knowing that i am not the only one suffering. Thank you guys for sharing.