Intermittent Ringing

Hi All,

Just wanted to connect with some folks here who might be able to offer some advice or support for a new unwanted thing in my life.

I'm 40, work in IT and have recently moved to Germany for work. Born in Australia.

A bit about my concerns then.... I've always had some kind of blockage in my ears. Often describing the sensation to others of "hearing underwater". I've kind of gotten used to it, and overall, wouldn't say it effects me too much in everyday like.

Even though I played bass in a band when a teenager, I eventually switched to wearing earplugs here. I have had hearing tests over the years with medicals and always been informed that I have "perfect hearing". I also experienced a perforated ear drum in my right ear from a firecracker that a friend let off close to my ear when I was about 18. This healed fine and again, I had no complaints for over 20 years. And since a teen, have always worn protection for my ears, at work, mowing lawn etc.


Over the last ten years, I've had Many middle ear infections, where antibiotics were needed to clear things up. The Dr suggested that my Eustacian tubes were perhaps underformed and not functioning correctly and most likely the cause of the infections. Nothing sinister seemed to stem from this. The Dr suggested grommets as a next step.
I've never been able to really breathe through my nose, always having some level of blockage present and I would often have very bad sinus irritations for days where my nose would drip non-stop.

All this time, I still had that "fluidy" feeling in my ears. But had more or less learnt to live with it. Again, it didn't seem to impact my life at all in a negative way.


By a fluidy feeling I mean that if I tip my head, I can tip my head and hear the movement of fluid in my ear.
My ear often feels heavy and if I stick my finger in my ear and wiggle, I kind of get the same head tilting sound produced. When swallowing I also get very large clicks and squelches, especially on my right side and when in a plane, I basically feel like I loose 50% or my hearing as my ears won't equalise. If I hold my nose and swallow, I also get the same 50% loss. It feels like I instantly block up, until I release and swallow a few times. Things then return to normal.

About 5 years ago, I had an intermittent beeping appear in my right ear. It lasted approx 5 days and then seemed to simply vanish. No trauma brought this on, as I am careful with my hearing, (I don't go to concerts etc)

Now fast forward to last week.....

This intermittent beeping has appeared in my right ear again. Just out of the blue... It seems similar to the previous sound in the sense it was an intermittent beeping too.


Now, there are a few things here which are peculiar
My ear does feel quite full and stuffy, and the side of my head isn't really sore, but there does feel like some kind of sensation there.
I went to the Dr, and they gave me some nose spray to allow me to clear up my sinuses etc, thinking there may be fluid in my ear causing the beeping.

The strange thing is that the beeping stops if I block my ear with either a finger or earplug!

So, I've been able to deduct that the beeping seems to be a reaction to an external noise. Ie, if I'm in a quiet room, there is no peeping or beeping in my ear, as soon as I go to where TV is playing, it will begin. If I then put my finger in my right ear, it stops.
Also, when I walk the movement seems to do the same thing (not always). Create a beep, beeeeeeep. If I hear this and instantly stand still, it instantly stops?! Always...

So in bed at night, when all is quiet, there is no perceived noise. I thought, I maybe once heard it, but I was TRYING really hard to see if it was. So fortunately, I can get decent reset as it doesn't bother me when I sit still and quiet, even skyping family and friends isn't a problem and doesn't make the sound, only things a little bit louder. like as busy kitchen etc. It also does it if I'm down the street too.

Any ideas what this could be? It came on so suddenly and has been present for about a week now. I'm hoping it goes away.

The Dr and ENT I visited in the last week said it's not Tinnitus as it isn't constant, but I don't know if this is true and i don't feel convinced at all, as what could it be??? And when will it go?

My wife suggested it may be the fluid in my ear creating the problem when external sounds come into "contact" with it? It almost feels like I can feel the beep more than I can hear it... If that makes sense.

I'm lost for ideas, and starting to get concerned.

Bye for now, and thanks.
Peter.

 

Hi Everyone? Does anyone have any input for me? I'm feeling pretty alone on this unwanted journey.

Thanks again...

 

Hi Everyone.

I guess I'm just responding to my own posts for now, but that's cool. Hey, I just realized through some extra reading that I may have reactive T.

When I sit in a quiet room with very low level sound, there is no ringing. ( I feel fortunate here) but, if the TV is turned on, I will get a ring that lasts the duration of any major levels. Although I watched TV last night for an hour and it didn't do this??

I also have a slight soreness to my jaw and ears. They certainly feel clogged.

So you think it is the reactive T?

Thank you.

 

if it isn`t constant it isn`t chronic tinnitus ... i`m curious what else your doctor said ... you should see an ear specialist ... if you have fluid in your ear and they don`t do anything about it (which woudln`t be a surpise) ... they suck and you should see another one.

having a muffed sensation in hearing could also cause T because the brain will make up for the lost frequencies ... best is that they do a check up and maybe pierce your drum to get the fluid out ...

but since you already visited a doctor I was hoping you knew what was going on ... but doctors these days arn`t really intellectually challenged anymore and don`t really seem to want to get to the bottom of things.

 

Thanks so much nills for the advice/info.

The Dr I saw did very little, only to refer me to the ENT specialist who told me there is a discrepancy between what my middle ear is hearing Vs what my ears themselves are indicating they can hear???

This is all he told me. He mentioned that it might have something to do with fluid, and I should take nose drops, which I have been for a week, with no change yet.

Is most tinnitus chronic?

I was hoping it was a curable condition seeing as it only appeared when noise was present. But having said that, I sat and watched TV for 20 minutes earlier without any ringing at all??? So it's all pretty random.

I'm going back to the Dr this afternoon, and to a different ENT the day after tomorrow. I'll be sure to let you know of the outcome.

 

Did you do a hearing test? If so this probably means your air conduction hearing thresholds (sounds that enter in your ear canal) and your bone conduction thresholds (bypassing the middle ear) are different. This is called the air-bone gap in audiology terms.

This is indicative of conductive hearing loss. I find it baffling that your doctors didn't do anything about this. I suggest you try to find an ENT that actually knows what he's doing.

 

Well I actually did a hearing test again yesterday with a different ENT, and he advised me that my hearing was 100%?

The first ENT I visited didn't tell me what my hearing test scores were, so I too was very interested to find out if I indeed have suffered any loss.

He asked me if I was feeling stressed and felt my jaw. It was clicking a bit so he suggested I see a dentist. He pressed my jaw in different locations and there was a lot of pain involved.

He was basically saying that seeing as in silence I hear no ringing, and that this is where T should normally be heard, then he believed it to be more of a psychosomatic issue.

I'm still not sure where to go with this one. As previously mentioned, I did experience something similar to this about 4 years ago, which just completely disappeared after approx 1 week, so there is some slight chance that it is stress related I guess?

 

But I still can't see how this could be producing a ringing only when I hear an external noise.

Does anyone else have this?

 

Do u have h?

 

Do you mean sensitivity to noise? WHen I clash plates together doing dishes I sometimes find that loud, but other than that, no. I wouldn't say I was very sensitive to noise.

I that what you mean?

 

If your ear is squelchy and you can hear fluid in it then it sounds like some kind of infection in there or at ,east some fluid that needs removing. I would have thought an ENT would have been able to find what that was from. And if there is fluid that shouldn't be there that could give you T.... Maybe you need a new ENT to take a look?

 

I think maybe you should go back to an ENT my chronic tinnitus started after years of sinus infections, I then had the blocked ear feeling in my right ear for ages then after about four months my left ear started hissing and hadn't stopped since.

It sounds like you gave intermittent tinnitus at the moment, chronic is 24(7 no let up. Plenty get intermittent and it goes, these boards tend to be full if chronic sufferers

There is of course no saying what happened to me will will happen to you, but maybe get checked out again for sinus issues, once that is done don't fixate on it too much ad I did and I think that was what brought it in full time. I also now have hissing in the blocked ear as well.

I think the blocked ear is called Eustacian Tube Disfunction, some people suffer from this for years and years but never seem to get T.

 

Yes that is a form of hypersensitivity to sound. I had it for years before I got my at. It was worse when it hers made the noises when I did it didn't seem to bother me, I guess because I knew the sound was coming.

 

I think I might have something similar. The intermittent ringing calms down when I'm in silence.

Did you ever figure out what was causing yours?

 

You have hydrops

 

It's called cochlear hydrops, not menieres, but cochlear hydrops without vertigo that's what you both have

 

I woke up with this today, exactly as the OP describes. It’s like a chirp or a beep in my right ear that only accompanies noise such as loud or high pitched talking or TV, or my own voice when I talk.