Idiopathic Tinnitus — Why Can't I Pop My Ears? ETD?

Hi all.

I've had tinnitus for just over a month, just in my left ear, started out of nowhere. I'm a 42-year-old man with no health complications. I've seen an ENT. He wasn't very interested. I had a hearing test which shows no issues. No earwax, fluid or sinus issues (though I did have a very bad sinus infection in April, where my ears were clogged for about 10 days and I needed antibiotics, I thought it was earwax and used an ear syringe, but I didn't experience any tinnitus after that whole experience). I'm not exposed to loud noises much and haven't been out in ages. Concerts aren't my thing. The GP I saw gave me a steroid nasal spray just in case it could help (I've been using it more in the past week). The ENT recommended therapy and said it was probably induced by stress - I've been under a fair bit lately.

While it caused me great anxiety in the beginning, it troubled me more at bedtime than throughout the day. It wasn't extremely loud and I thought I would be able to manage it with masking quite effectively going forward. (Calm app is a godsend for sleep.)

When I first spoke to a doctor about it, she asked if I could pop my ears - and I couldn't. I can inflate them when I pinch my nose and blow, I feel my ears inflate, but I don't get that actual 'pop' when you can hear everything louder if you know what I mean? I haven't been brave enough to really push hard though.

Throughout the month, I've been doing the pinch nose and blow thing quite regularly as it does give me some brief respite from the noise. I still feel like if I could pop the ears, things will be better.

In my follow up appointment with the ENT, I mentioned about not being able to pop the ears. He said not to use the Valsalva maneuver and to use a nasal balloon to train the ears to open up. I got one, and it really seemed to help with the tinnitus in the beginning. I would use it several times a day, but still no ear pop. It seemed to change the noise - what was a high pitched tone turned into something that sounded like my fridge motor, with high pitched morse code-like spikes which were annoying. But it seemed easier to deal with than before.

A few days ago, I was just getting used to the noise and my coping strategies seemed to be working. But then I got something of a spike and the tinnitus became more noticeable - back to the high pitched tone I had in the beginning. I had stopped with the balloon for a few days but started using it again. I became determined to pop my ears. I tried the balloon, drinking water while pinching nose (this seemed to get me closer to popping than anything else, especially when I completely filled my mouth with water), chewing gum, yawning, blowing my nose - every trick in the book. I took a hot bath rather than shower too.

Last night it seemed a little louder still, so I tried all of the above more than usual, determined to make the damn ears pop. Today, the tinnitus seems worse. There is now a more constant high pitched whistling noise, worse than before. My ears are a little sore from everything I've done. My ears crackle when I open my mouth and there is a squelchy sound sometimes. I feels like my ears are full of air, but not necessarily fluid.

I'm at my wits' end with this now, I feel stupid for making it worse. But I still can't stop the habit of trying to pop. Gently doing the Valsalva maneuver still gives me some relief for a minute or so. When I inflate, everything opens and the noise stops for a minute, then everything settles down and it comes back. When I'm moving around I can't hear much, but a few minutes after I sit still, it will come on and get louder. I was still trying everything today but now it's time to stop and hope things will settle down.

One other thing is I have had an MRI 2 weeks ago, I have to wait 1 more week for the ENT to return from holiday to tell me the results. He didn't seem to think it would find anything.

Sorry that was a lot more rambling than I thought it would be. I suppose my main questions are:

• Is trying to pop my ears a terrible idea?
• Is the fact I can't pop my ears pointing to other issues in my ear - ETD (Eustachian Tube Dysfunction)?
• Do I have any hope this could all just go away?

If you've read this far, thank you. Any advice and pointers are gratefully received. This is literally driving me insane.

 

Hi there @mfgrn. Suffering from constant ear pressure sounds horrible. I've only experienced ear pressure after a flight and for a very short time and am grateful for that. I remember reading a while ago in some other thread about an "EarPopper / Ear Popper" and that it made a difference to the person who used it.

I had a look and it is still available on Amazon. But maybe have a look around first and check if other members dealing with your kind of symptoms would recommend it, too. Maybe the comment I remember has just been an isolated case.

I can't really offer practical advice but from the way you're describing your behaviour I'd say your hyper-focusing at the moment which is totally understandable because you are dealing with something that has a seriously disturbing influence on your everyday life. My gut tells me to try to give your ears some rest. I'm not sure if you can really damage your ears with what you are doing, but if you pinch the same spot on your arm too many times it is bound to bruise. Maybe your increasing discomfort is based on a similar principle.

I wish you the best of luck and that you will get your ears to pop soon!
Leila

 

I really don't know if popping your ears will make any difference at all, my audiologist never suggested it. You probably didn't do anything to modify your tinnitus unless your case is somatic. And in that case, it's also modifiable... if that makes sense, you can just not do the thing that spiked you and it will probably get better.

Yeah, tinnitus can come out of nowhere, maybe it has something to do with changes in physical brain structure or connectivity. Or those changes in brain structure or connectivity are a result of hearing loss that may not register on the standard test.

Anyway, my advice to you would be to hold tight, do what you need to do to cope, and stay busy. My tinnitus changed so, so much for the first few months. Maybe for the first 6 months. But at this point it's stable in that some days it's intense and other days it's negligible (usually thanks to my newfound use of low dose THC edibles). There's a set range and I can expect change within those bounds, and it doesn't really bother me. I'm living life normally and in fact healthier than I was a year ago.

I would not have have believed this to be possible if you'd told me that back in January of this year. Unfortunately you're just going to have to go through the adaptation process.

Things that helped me:

The Tinnitus Talk Podcast, ATA's Conversations in Tinnitus Podcast, and the Outring Tinnitus Podcast. They really help you to get your head around the issue with evidence and practicality, as well as normalize the condition, i.e. plenty of otherwise normal and successful people have it and live their lives in spite of it.

The Oto app helped as well in early days.

A few therapeutics I've found helpful:

• Klonopin sparingly i.e. once weekly - a little more in early days. for me it was a lifesaver.
• Low dose THC edible I've recently found quiets my noise materially, doesn't take effect until the next day.
• Doxylamine succinate - once in a while I take half a 25 mg tab, the next day is much quieter. Benadryl similarly.

 

Hi Leila, thank you for your reply. Hyper-focusing is definitely what I’m doing - I’m constantly trying to find a quiet place to listen to the tinnitus to see if it’s got better or worse. I actually thought I was past that stage but one spike set me off again.

It’s very difficult for me to focus on anything else at the moment. I’ve always been quite sensitive to unwanted noise and I’ve been very OCD about the whole thing. It has caused me severe distress since it started.

I’ll have a look at the EarPopper - I will literally try anything at this stage! And despite saying I will give it a rest I’m still trying it really is time to stop...

Thanks again and all the best.

 

Thank you for the advice @blamingeverything. That’s very helpful. I was vaping a lot of cannabis before this started, I have cut right back as it wasn’t really helping my anxiety around it (that is straight after vaping, after an hour or so I feel more relaxed). Staying busy definitely does help, but I’m very lazy and miss being able to read in silence, as well as a quiet night’s sleep!

The disappointing thing was the first spike happened just as I thought I was getting adapted. I put the OCD behaviour to one side and just got on with things, and things were looking up. Then a few days later the spike set me off again the second spike was probably my own doing though - you’re right, I’d best leave my ears alone now.

I’m glad to hear you are getting on with life normally. Right now that seems a difficult task for me but learning from others like yourself who have lived through the anguish will surely help me. I will look into your suggestions- I’m from the UK so not sure if I have the same pharmaceutical options but will do some research.

Thank you again for replying and all the best.

 

@mfgrn, have you tried getting a TMJ massage? It may be helpful. It seems to have helped me slightly when I developed ear fullness during the early days of my tinnitus and when I caught COVID-19.

 

Hi @mfgrn, I'm sorry you are now part of this community, but just know you are still in the early days. It has a good chance of improving or fading still. It's frustrating to have this come out of nowhere, but you did the right things by getting checked out by your ENT and audiologist. Tinnitus changes a lot in the early days, and it's normal for it to even get a little worse as we try to help ourselves and figure out how to best protect our ears. Give yourself some grace, we all did it.

I know how hard it is, I'm 8 months in and still struggling, although not as bad as the beginning. Please use whatever (safe) coping tools you need right now - the ReSound app, fans, and walks outside help me a lot. Keep distracted and busy if you can.

I suggest giving your ears a rest from the popping. I also have a clogged feeling in my ears where they don't pop since onset. I think I may have made my tinnitus worse/onset in my formally "good" ear from trying to pop it too much in the beginning. The feeling was sooo annoying to me in the beginning and I obsessed over it too. But then I read that doing nothing to try to pop your ears helped some people. So I tried that, I stopped obsessively swallowing trying to pop them all day, etc. And I couldn't tell you when, but then it stopped bothering me. My tinnitus is the culprit of all my distress now. There are muscles around your ears/jaw, and by overworking them all the time you could be making them inflamed, making your clogged feeling worse.

I can now relieve a bit of pressure to take the edge off most of the time and I do this as needed throughout the day, but I can tell when I've overdone it as they feel more clogged. I have noticed the weather, stress, and altitude make a difference to me.

I can't offer advice for it going away as it obviously hasn't yet for me, and I can trace my onset in my one ear from noise exposure. For my right, formally "good" ear, I have no idea. But anyway, you said stress might be a factor for you - you may be clenching your teeth without realizing. I recommend seeing a dentist to be evaluated for tmj, maybe it will help you.

Hang in there. For the vast majority of us, it seems time is the best healer.

 

No but that is something I will look into, thanks for the suggestion. I have been under a lot of stress, I have been known to grind my teeth when sleeping and I do experience neck pain at times (sometimes have difficulty turning my head) and have a bad posture. Plus I haven’t had any type of massage in years, I think it would help with relaxation regardless! Definitely going to give it a try.

Thank you for sharing your experience, it sounds like your behaviour at the start has been similar to mine. Today is the start of me leaving things well alone! I have an EarPopper device coming today but I think I’d best leave it in the box for now. My ears feel a little sore and inflamed after my antics over the past few days. Also my jaw has been overworked from all the gum I’ve been chewing.

I don’t have stresses of work to deal with over the weekend so I can have constant background noise to distract and let things settle. I realise now I’ve been way too focused on trying to fix this somehow, and I what I’m doing is probably more detrimental than helpful. I’ve also been very focused on trying to find a reason why it’s happened, but have to accept I will probably never really know. Just need to shift my focus to climbing out of the dark hole I’ve put myself in.

Thank you both for taking the time to reply, I hope you find some semblance of peace in your lives while dealing with this awful, awful affliction.

 

I have been doing allergy shots (immunotherapy) for 2.5 months. It seems to have relaxed my Eustachian tube (also left ear). I was found to be pretty allergic to a lot of things including dust mites, cat/dog, several molds and trees.

Earlier in the year I was also unable to pop my ears at all. I still feel fullness in the left ear, but it's a lot better.

As stated, it's only been 2.5 months*. This treatment isn't cheap ($500-600 for testing, $1200 for a year's worth of serum, +$15-20 every visit which I am doing 3x weekly for 3-6 months before it tapers down, eventually to monthly). Will update on the results one way or another in time.

 

Thanks for the reply @Replika. Allergies are another avenue I haven't explored yet - I will try and get myself tested for them.

Well I thought I would post something of an update, just as I think things have gotten a bit worse for me over the past few days.

So I stopped trying to forcibly pop my ears about 2 weeks and 2 days ago. I bought an EarPopper before that, used it a few times and it didn't make any difference. I watched a video on how to use it, and it said fullness of the ears would be a sign they have popped... then it dawned on me that was what I was feeling the whole time, just not that feeling I was expecting when you hear everything louder and clearer

About a day or two after stopping everything, I noticed the ears popping the way I expected but every damn time I yawned or opened my mouth wide. Lots of crackling noises and a pop and this is still the case today.

Early last week I caught COVID-19. After a couple of days in bed (bad migraine and fatigue were my main symptoms), I found the tinnitus less noticeable and easier to ignore. It was still there but I was coping a lot better. Great I thought!

However, a few days later I went for a run. It's something I started since my tinnitus onset to try and reduce blood pressure (the ENT said this could be a cause). I noticed my left ear (the one with the tinnitus) popping like crazy when I was running. Tinnitus seemed a little louder after that. Went for a run a few days later again, popping and clicking were worse and hearing a little muffled. Since then the tinnitus seems noticeably louder. I think the spike I described in my first post above was also after a run.

The noise has changed a bit in the past week, the mechanical noise in my left ear is now more of an electrical hiss that is now louder, more persistent but can be masked ok. This can be made even louder, with a bit more bass to it when I sniff in through my nose and feel the Eustachian tubes close. If I yawn and the ears pop, this gets a little quieter. Either way when I sit still, after a few seconds I get another noise over the top which is like a shrill whistle. This is hard to deal with. It's the same thing I described in my first post after the spike but it's louder and I notice it much more over other noises than I have before. It's a little like a radio being tuned and goes up and down in pitch and volume. It's not really noticeable when I'm eating or chewing, moving around or physically doing things - more when I try and sit/stand still. Taking a puff on my ecig vape also makes the shriller noise stop for a few seconds. This shrill noise always seemed to come from the left, but past couple of days I can't be 100% sure I'm not experiencing something in the right ear now. Last night as I was going to sleep I could hear a very low pitched buzzing sound in the right which perturbed me somewhat. I heard this at bedtime just before I got the issues with the left ear in the very beginning (September 2nd/3rd/4th), but it went after three days (then straight away the high pitched stuff happened on the left). I've also noticed since this all started that just as I'm about to fall asleep I will get a loud ringing in my right ear. But before yesterday everything was 100% in the left ear.

I had my final appointment with the ENT last week, MRI came back fine, hearing is fine (some very slight loss at lower frequencies in the right ear apparently but still shows normal hearing, and that ear wasn't the problem). He was just like well nothing for me to do here, sleep with the fan on at night, bye. He didn't seem to think the things I had been doing over the past 6 weeks would cause any issues. I'm wondering if I should see a different ENT but part of me says there is no point.

It's not quite been two months since the onset (September 5 is when life went downhill for me) so I'm still hopeful it will get better in some way. I was making progress in not focusing on it but have gone backwards in that regard over the past few days.

Anyway, to sum up I've done a lot of stupid things since I started getting tinnitus which I regret. Too much needlessly trying to make my ears pop, combined with running seems to have made things worse. I'm thankfully past the super anxiety stage, but am feeling pretty depressed. I'm hoping that things might settle down over the next few months if I just try ignore it and don't try and mess around any more. I wish I just tried to ignore it in the first place and I might be better off now. I've been thinking of going to The Tinnitus Clinic in Harley Street and getting another hearing test to see if I've made anything change there, and at least get some good advice going forward. What a mess!

If you've read this far, thank you.

 

@mfgrn, any updates?

 

@Replika, really glad immunotherapy has been helping you! I truly hope things continue to improve for you. I also have Eustachian Tube issues, pretty persistent fullness and pain even when my tinnitus is not active. My allergies are identical to yours (as far as I know). I'm due to start immunotherapy soon.

Did your symptoms get worse for a while when you started?

 

Thanks

Yes, it seemed to get ever slightly worse after immunotherapy, but nothing to worry about. I think my ETD is in a better place, though not fully resolved. I still have sensitivity to low frequencies which trigger the acoustic reflex. It might be Tensor Tympani Syndrome. The mind can actually cause the ear to plug up. It’s thought to be a defense mechanism.

I have an audiologist appointment next month to determine that for sure.

Other things that helped:

Nasal strips to encourage nose breathing. This has kept my nasal passageway humidified. I actually started taping my mouth at night too to train myself. It’s working. Just make sure you nose is cleared out before going to bed.

A personal steamer can also help. I would recommend one that is cordless - but make sure it’s not vapor - vapor does nothing. These devices cost about $200, and it’s a tiny benefit but if you don’t mind spending the $$$, you might as well.

 

@ThorOdinson, hey, I hope you are well. I’ve been doing a lot better. I still have the tinnitus, it’s been a bit up and down. Some days it’s hardly noticeable, some days it’s very noticeable. My main problem is really when going to sleep, can’t live without the jungle forest soundscape in the Calm app! But otherwise I’m sort of back to normal, in terms of being back to work, able to go out and socialise etc. I was in a very bad place for the first 6 weeks or so, looking at mental hospitals and antidepressants. Thankfully never quite made it to that stage.

I’ve been doing some cardio and eating much healthier, this has made a massive difference. I’ve also thrown myself into my gaming hobby which is a great distraction (but expensive!)

I’ve also stopped using headphones where possible. Unfortunately a lot of my job involves video meetings in an open plan office, so I don’t have much choice there. But I’ve stopped wearing them when commuting. Which is driving me mad with people being inconsiderate with their loudspeaker calls and music!

My ears are still a bit crazy. They pop when I yawn or open my mouth wide. Sometimes I can make louder tinnitus noises go away when I do this. There is a lot of crackling noises going on in there. Things get worse when I have a cold or runny nose. And occasionally I can feel the ear close up and I’ll get a loud tonal noise, but that doesn’t last long.

Basically I’m doing my best to just ignore any tinnitus noise. It’s hard not to think about it but I feel like my brain is getting bored of it. I can sit in silence and read quite well. First thing in the morning it seems quietest most days.

I haven’t been to see any more ENTs, I felt after my last experience it was all a bit pointless. The one I saw just shrugged his shoulders and said it’s all in your brain, sleep with a fan on. I’ve done CBT but tbh it wasn’t much help, the therapist had no idea.

Also when it started I was under a lot of stress - about to start a new job, and I had house sale fall through at the last minute after months of waiting. The new job is actually quite relaxed and I’m going to complete another house purchase in the next few days.

So yeah, kinda habituated in some ways, and I feel being a bit healthier has made it a bit quieter in some respects. I think i probably had some minor damage from headphones and nights out, but made it all worse with what I was doing with the ear popping nonsense. But I’m in a better place now. Time + being more active + not eating crap have really helped.