Hearing Damage from Yawning?

I've been getting this for the last few months and it always seems to occur when I 'squeeze' my ears when yawning. I seem to have dulled hearing afterward that does not resolve, along with tightness deep in my ear seemingly unrelated to my eustachian tubes; surprisingly, however, I get very little tinnitus except transient noise at the tones that were recently lost from yawning.

I know that the tensor tympani and staepedus muscles contract during yawning which may explain the tight sensations, but why these contractions seem to invoke hearing and inner ear damage is something I don't understand. I often get bouts of hearing damage from straining, coughing, sneezing, or something requiring exertion of the head or neck muscles, and I think this may be related to that.

Anyone have any ideas as to what is going on?

 

Have a read up about TMJ.
Basically when you feel it could be putting pressure on your jaw joint that is right by your middle ear causing you ear problems....lots of love glynis

 

Hello Glynis,

Thanks for the helpful thought. I have definitely considered TMJ inflammation going on as I have been having myofascial pain all over my head and neck and very tight muscles, so hopefully this is temporary. But I am also a migraine sufferer with migraines in my inner ear, so I am worried that this is a vascular problem and that I have been setting of vasospasms in my ears.

The same thing happened to me today whilst hiking. There was a bit of a steep trail and I had to crawl up briefly, but the bending over and picking myself along part was a terrible mistake as I felt a pop in one of my ears, but it seemed to come from the TMJ area. Afterward my high frequency hearing went out for a bit, and at this point I have still lost some of the low frequencies; my ear canal was also strangely swollen. Could this still all have been due to TMJ inflammation/ muscle spasms? Or is it something more serious? The low frequency loss is scaring me, and I have been getting them in both ears more regularly these days.

 

@glynis


Hello Glynis,

Thanks for the helpful thought. I have definitely considered TMJ inflammation going on as I have been having myofascial pain all over my head and neck and very tight muscles, so hopefully this is temporary. But I am also a migraine sufferer with migraines in my inner ear, so I am worried that this is a vascular problem and that I have been setting of vasospasms in my ears.

The same thing happened to me today whilst hiking. There was a bit of a steep trail and I had to crawl up briefly, but the bending over and picking myself along part was a terrible mistake as I felt a pop in one of my ears, but it seemed to come from the TMJ area. Afterward my high frequency hearing went out for a bit, and at this point I have still lost some of the low frequencies; my ear canal was also strangely swollen. Could this still all have been due to TMJ inflammation/ muscle spasms? Or is it something more serious? The low frequency loss is scaring me, and I have been getting them in both ears more regularly these days.