Hearing Improves While Speaking

[Scottymed]

Hi Im Scott age 33. Ok last year I got a fullness feeling in my ear. Thought maybe a wax build up, went to ent, no wax, Yada Yada yada. Yall know the drill. MRI and CT found nothing. Slowly developed tinnitus over the next few months and continued to lose hearing. Now I have a job where there is some noise so I wear headphones and listen to music or books while I'm working. One day while I had my ear buds in, someone started talking to me, so I took one ear bud out of my good ear so i could listen and left the bud in my bad ear. When I started responding to them, the noise from the music in my bad ear went waaaay up. When I stopped talking it closed back up. I realized that this happened every time I speak, or yawn, chew ice, or clench my jaw really hard and try to push it up. My original assessment of my condition was eustachian tube, but the ent said no. But I can't figure this out. Any ideas? Anyone have a similar situation? Thanks much

 

[glynis]

Hi Scottymed.
Might be worth having the dentist check your jaw for TMJ.
Basically jaw joint and muscle problems that can effect the ear also as the joint is right by your middle ear..lots of love glynis

 

[Vaba]

The hearing improvement is because your Eustachian tubes open when you blow your nose, speak, move your jaw, or swallow. It basically provides a second hole for sound to reach your middle ear through, increasing volume.

Try this: put in earplugs REALLY deep so you can only hear very little, then try playing music through a speaker. This works best with loud bassy music in a small car, by the way.

You shouldn't be able to hear anything clearly through the earplugs, but if you open your mouth in the correct fashion, you should hear a crackle (this is your Eustachian tube opening, or trying to open). You should then be able to hear the music faintly. It might be tinny sounding because the sound isn't traveling through the ear canal, hitting the eardrum and passing through the ossicles (incus, stapes, malleus) which are largely responsive for bass - its going through a tight tube in your mouth, STRAIGHT to the cochlea!

I also have some kind of ETD. I have a very long history of allergies and jaw/neck problems. When I do the Valsalva, air gets stuck in my left ear but not the right. I have to open my jaw REALLY wide, and then it slowly escapes, going "whoOOOOOOooosh!" The right ear clears instantly every time with no noise.

 

[Scottymed]

So do you think the ENT could be wrong and it is eustachian related? What's weird is I usually get sinus infections every year. But since this has happened I have not gotten one. Sometimes I have tried to do a sinus rinse but now the saline fluid gets trapped up there. If it stand on my head it comes dripping back out

 

[Vaba]

So do you think the ENT could be wrong and it is eustachian related? What's weird is I usually get sinus infections every year. But since this has happened I have not gotten one. Sometimes I have tried to do a sinus rinse but now the saline fluid gets trapped up there. If it stand on my head it comes dripping back out

You didn't say what the ENT said in your original post, just that he didn't see earwax. What did he say to you?

Try some Sudafed. The real stuff with pseudoephedrine, you can get it at most pharmacies, but it's behind the counter. If you have problems with head congestion it'll drain and dry everything in an hour.

 

[Scottymed]

You didn't say what the ENT said in your original post, just that he didn't see earwax. What did he say to you?

They said everything looked normal. And the audiologist said I should be able to hear as well. I can also hear popping noises. My wife has put her ear against mine and heard them

 

[Vaba]

They said everything looked normal. And the audiologist said I should be able to hear as well. I can also hear popping noises. My wife has put her ear against mine and heard them

Are the popping noises when you swallow/make other face and jaw movements? If so it's your Eustachian tube making the noise. This doesn't always mean there's dysfunction though, and I'm willing to bet that the doctor didn't check out your eustachian tube.

 

[Scottymed]

Are the popping noises when you swallow/make other face and jaw movements? If so it's your Eustachian tube making the noise. This doesn't always mean there's dysfunction though, and I'm willing to bet that the doctor didn't check out your eustachian tube.

Yes. And I can actually hear that in both ears now

 

[Scottymed]

So Vaba is what I'm describing more similar to a eustachian tube not opening, or being patulous and staying open? I'm only asking you because I have tried and tried to find answers of why doing certain things allows me to hear, but have been unable to get any kind of relevant information.