Eardrum Vibrating

A week ago I had the most scariest thing happen to me.

It lasted an hour, I thought it wouldn't go away.

It was a buzzing/vibrating sensation and sound in my left ear (kind of feels like when you're congested and suddenly your nose clears up and you get a sensation and noise).

Putting pressure on my ear canal relieved it a bit, has anyone had this? I feel like I have PTSD from the whole experience.

 

I have experienced this.

I think mine is to do with a known magnesium deficiency, that causes tensor tympani syndrome.

 

I do not understand what you are referring at here, but I had eardrum vibrating. People call it "eardrum fluttering", and is caused by spasms of the tiny muscles in the middle ear. I can't tell if you have tympanic membrane problems, or stapedius muscle problems, but this problem goes away on its own, do not worry. People who had it for a longer period of time went under the knife to cut the stapedius muscle, but you don't have to take such extreme measures.

Relax and the problem will resolve on its own.

 

I thought it was potassium deficiency

 

mine acts up when my mg is depleted .. cant speak for you

 

I experience the same thing every day, sometimes only a couple of minutes, other days for 2-3 hours It is a horrible feeling.

Oddly enough I started taking Magnesium supplement about a week ago and since then the vibrating has just increased.....hoping it will disappear in time though.

 

My right ear drum vibrates after a journey in the car. It sometimes does it in the morning too. It always settles down after a few minutes and doesnt seem to have affected my hearing in any way so I don't worry about it. It just feels weird and annoying but I don't get anxious about it anymore. Not sure of the cause but I don't try to figure it out. I also get whoosing sounds when there are changes in blood pressure (like going from lying down to standing up). These are all on top of my standard multiple high-pitched frequency tinnitus which is permanent and in both ears. My ears are just a bit messed up. I just look after my hearing as best I can now.

 

I have this problem. It started some months ago, I assumed it was some kind of wax build up touching ear drum, causing dulled hearing and some kind of irritation of the ear drum but when I went to have wax removed the audiologist said there wasn't any trace of wax at all. The sensation is as if a small wasp were buzzing in the ear canal i.e. not just a rumbling/buzzing sound but a palpable vibration.

At the same time, I've been having a breakout of oral sores that my dentist said might be lichen planus, which went away with a week of prednisone (50 mg tapered). Curiously, the buzzing disappeared whilst I was taking the prednisone, and reappeared the day I stopped them. I already have very severe tinnitus in my deaf ear, and this additional sensation/tinnutis (which was made worse by the steroids ) in addition to dulled hearing in my good ear is driving me to distraction.

 

buzzing sounds more like tinnitus and not tensor typani problems but you could have both

 

Did this finally subside?

Mine has come back suddenly after stupidly using molded earplugs called Decibulz. It brought back an old condition I only got occasionally, but now 24/7 for 2 weeks.

Is yours the same as mine? Feels like something is physically twitching or viberating in the ear, and creates a bass like echo sound that has like half second pauses between each pulse?

 

Sounds just like me, until mine recently came upon and won't stop now. Never lasted long, now it's 24/7. Did you ever get worse or have it for longer periods? I'm starting to hear the whoosing sound too when getting up or bending down.

 

It sounds much like how yours act, and mine has become more frequent over time, sadly. It is still not 24/7, but I fear it will be one day.

 

Do you know what triggered your first episode? Also, does something make it act up, or is it random? Mine was usually random, sometimes a car ride would cause it (very rare) when I parked and started feeling it vibrate.

It seems strange to me that this can't stop. If it started, surely it can stop....but I lack and understand of what exactly IS vibrating and causing the bass rhythm. What I'm confident though is that it's not a regular tinnitus type of issues in terms of hair cells die, you get a tone, the end.

Supposedly this isn't supposed to go on and on like mine has for 2 weeks, so maybe I'm wrong. Or maybe like a twitch in your eyelid etc,. that can last weeks, this also can occur inside the ear.

Hopefully I can find out what the mechanism in the ear that is causing this at least.

 

No, I have no idea what triggered it. Mine is mostly random, but being outside in windy weather, and coming home I notice it spikes it sometimes.......but it usually doesn't trigger it, only makes it spike if it is already present.

Yeah, I really wish I knew what was going on in there, and what triggered it.

 

The vibrating has lessened over time but whooshing still the same. Tinnitus is louder though.

 

What was the longest it lasted for you? Did it continue to vibrate essentially all day for weeks? Do you actively take or try anything to lessen it?

 

Kinda on and off throughout the day but not 24/7. Don't know anything to lessen it. Probably spasms in middle ear. Magnesium supposed to calm nerves.

 

I forgot to ask you both, when you/had this issue occurring, do low freq. sounds (like bass going in distant or car rumbling) actually sound louder, or like you're picking it up more in your ear If that makes sense?

It's strange because I can hear a car outside idling, but only in my affected ear. My normal ear can't pick it up as it's a bit too far.

 

The autonomic activation of the trigeminal nerve can cause the tensor tympani to make a bassy hum. It innervates this muscle. For me it’s utterly chronic and can even cause the tensor tympani to cramp up. Often it’s pulsatile too but not always. It is worsened by sound.

I’ve had remissions and even had the cramping go away for several months, but it always comes back due to certain sound exposures which were not even remotely loud enough to be damaging. I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s a nervous system disorder. The ears were hurt at one point making the surrounding nerves on edge, constantly. Some are lucky enough for it to go away eventually. Not me.

At night it’s typically it’s calmest but the bassy hum vibration will never truly go away. There’s no end to the forms of suffering.

If you wobble your head does it stop for a split second? Or if you block your ears does the sound go away?

 

Yes - Here is a list of arteries that can cause a hum and all but the labial arteries can also activate the tensor tympani.

 

Hmmm. I don't think so. When I have this, I put on very low frequency noise, like brown noise and it stops it completely, but only while listening to it.

 

@Tweaker I also have it at complete random. But I only seem to get it mainly in the MORNINGS. Or times shortly after napping or sleeping when my mind is in that fuzzy state. It goes away later in the day. I get anywhere from 2-10 random thumps a day. It seems to be related to how fatigued I am, I guess it is a relaxation of the startle reflex from being too tired and misfires and thumps. Anyway, surgery is always avail if god forbid our situation becomes frequent. I have chronic fatigue syndrome, go not being tired is wishful thinking but some days I don't get thumps when I am not tired. Bad sleep sets it off. We are lucky, I have doctors who can do the surgery just incase.

 

I get this as well...TTTS is awful and scary.

 

I've had this malady for over 23 years - a loud, low-frequency hum that I can feel as well as hear. It's as if a helicopter or lawnmower is vibrating inside my skull. It's more prevalent in my right ear, but it engulfs my entire head. After three MRI's, numerous hearing tests (which all came back normal), and countless other exams, no cause has even been found.

And yes - if I shake my head from side to side, the humming stops momentarily. Covering my ears and creating an "alternate" noise will also stop it. It's a form of residual inhibition.

I've also had remissions, the most recent one lasted for 2 1/2 years. Nothing would awaken the noise, so I thought I was free and clear. But about a month ago, it came back for no discernible reason. I just woke up and there it was.

I've returned to that dark place from which I thought I had escaped. Playing music, strumming my acoustic guitar, even brushing my teeth will cause the hum to increase in intensity. It's very reactive. It's like a sleeping giant. I've been on the antidepressant Lexapro for 15 years, and I really believed it has helped me cope. Today has been a horrible day with my head buzzing and vibrating. The worst part is the hopelessness. I'm 58 years old and lead a very healthy lifestyle (no smoking, alcohol, or drugs, and I exercise regularly). But I guess my brain doesn't care.

In addition to that awful hum, I also have a high-pitched hissing in my ears. Fortunately, I habituated to this over 20 years ago. Even though I don't like it, it doesn't really bother me anymore.

One of the many doctors I saw years ago suggested that the humming could be a weird type of migraine. I rarely get headaches, so I doubt it. Further investigation ruled this out.

I wish there was a drug or treatment that targeted the trigeminal nerve .

 

23years?! And no one can help?? That's it then. I realised mine was never really going to go away. Now I know it. I can save money by doing nothing about it, because there is nothing that can be done. We are still living in the middle ages. Doctors actually do not know much at all. What a joke.

I don't suppose you also get your tensor tympani muscles cramping up, do you? My trigeminal hum had quietened down last week, but it came back hard a couple of days ago and with it, the cramping that had been in remission.

I used to get them in just one ear, but now get it in both. When it cramps it causes another kind of sound in addition to the other hum. Plus recently I've developed intermittent patulous eustachian tubes, which is also horribly uncomfortable and also triggered by sound.

I thought that having T that constantly changes tones and H were bad enough, but to have trigeminal humming and tensor tympani cramping too is just too much. There are so many sounds, and uncomfortable sensations going on. Hearing sound is really uncomfortable and hollow sounding when the middle ear muscles cramp up.

I have to face it, I can no longer live in the real world again. People say things can get better, but they can actually get worse, much much worse even without any discernible cause. Once these things get programmed into ones autonomic nervous system, it's over. Case closed.

 

Muscle spasms from can do exactly what you describe. Lots of study about this and of complaints on other talk boards.

https://www.justanswer.com/neurology/7rotp-deep-humming-left-side-head-comes.

The external carotid artery begins at the bifurcation of the common carotid at the level of the superior border of the thyroid cartilage. It runs superiorly and posteriorly between the neck of the mandible and the lobule of the auricle. It gives off six branches before it divides into two terminating branches. They are in ascending order: superior thyroid, ascending pharyngeal, lingual, facial, occipital, and posterior auricular. The two terminating branches are the maxillary and superficial temporal arteries.

Would need dental history, thyroid blood work, ultrasound notes and X Ray of neck in trying to figure things out. Radiological testing would be mostly useless.

 

But you see Greg, finding a medical professional who actually gave a damn and looked into it is the main issue. Then them actually being able to treat it is another. No one puts the pieces together to figure anything out. They speculate it could be this or that and then say bye bye, please pay.
But anyway I know it's the tensor tympani muscle and the trigeminal nerve which innervates it that is the cause. The pulsatile bit is just some arterial compression going on somehow.

The doctor on that website suggests muscle relaxants can help, which is BS.

 

Sound doesn't seem to affect mine, so I think perhaps there could be many reasons for the vibration, different things affecting that one muscle to spasm.

This link:
http://hearinglosshelp.com/blog/do-i-have-tonic-tensor-tympani-syndrome-ttts/

Suggests a lot has to do with H and anxiety based activation of this muscle.


For me, it's 24/7 and it does not get worse with noise. It gets less intense late at night. Sometimes in the past, riding in car and coming up and turning car off I would hear it, so I'm assuming the vibration triggered it. But I've had this very off and on, never lasting more than 5-20 minutes in the past.

What I don't get, is how sticking these decibulz earplugs in for the first time and molding it to my outer ear has started it back up. It raged like crazy once I pulled the plug back out. And has been going ever since. Unless the day prior where I was a complete mess from losing my gran dad contributed. It's also seems to be making my jaw below my earlobe sore too now in addition to a soreness in the middle ear.

Doesn't make sense how this never was a long term problem, and suddenly became one. I experimented last night by rolling a foam plug and inserting into my ear. To my shock, after I pulled it out after a minute the intensity had skyrocketed and it was one single vroooooooooooooooooooooooooooom low bass sound instead of just prior, a mild vroom, pause, vroom, pause, vroom type of low bass sound. This lasted for over 5 hours and I was out of my mind.

I'm completely stumped. This originally started years ago when I herd a loud pop (which came from the ear) that awoke me, and my ear was vibrating like crazy. I never thought much of it as I recovered and only had it off and on throughout the years for minutes. But with a 24/7 for 2 weeks, I'm close to collapsing over this.

 

Totally agree about it not thinking it would be a long term problem but now is one. Mine used to go away for a long time, but now is almost constant in varying degrees of severity. When it's bad it's unmaskable and constant all night, but used to relax when sleeping only to kick in once I woke up.

It's such a poorly researched area. While I don't doubt anxiety can play a part, it can also happen without it. It can become ingrained into the nervous system and becomes completely autonomous. This is what I'm facing now. I can listen to it all day (well I often have to anyway) without any emotional response as with the normal T. I can ignore it too for hours. Makes no difference.

Driving in the car and also using ear plugs also cranks mine up. I used to drive with sound reducing earplugs but it actually made it worse.

Clonazepam is the only thing that has ever helped. I took small amounts here and there early last year. The effectiveness diminished over that time. Obviously hasn't helped long term.

 

What does yours sound like? Do you hear and feel something as well? Is it a vibration type bass echo that can shift from being a pure non-pause rumble if it's bad, and more of a pause in between each type of rumble when it's not as intense? Is it 24/7, or most of the day off and on? Have you seen anyone to identify what exactly is vibrating in the ear?

What have you read makes you believe that it can become ingrained into the nervous system and become autonomous? There's a lot of different things that can screw up in the body, and many can resolve it and it goes away, so I don't think it's likely that it just happens and then gets stuck doing what it's doing. Underneath it all, there has to be a cause for the effect.