Possible Relation Between Hyperacusis and Eustachian Tube Dysfunction?

Let’s talk about ETD (Eustachian Tube Dysfunction) and how it relates to tinnitus/hypercacusis.

For context:

I suffer from tinnitus and hyperacusis for 18 months now. However, I’ve recently been suffering from Eustachian Tube Disorder like symptoms.

The Symptoms (Chronological Order as they started happening):

• Clogged right nostril
  • Happens almost every morning.

• Constant on and off clogged/fullness feeling in right ear
  • 6 months into my tinnitus and hyperacusis, I started developing “fullness/clogged” feeling in reaction to moderate sounds only in my right ear. Later after an exposure at a store, it changed to reacting to mild sounds. Shortly after that, my right ear changed again and now it feels clogged/full even when no sound is present. I can wake up with it feeling full/clogged, 20 minutes later it will be fine again. An hour later it will feel full/clogged again. It will spend the day back and forth this way. I recently went camping for a few days and spent time walking through the woods in silence and my ear ended up feeling full/clogged regardless.

• Clogged ears when I sneeze
  • Every time I sneeze, both of my ears clog up pretty violently (plane flight ascending/descending levels of fullness).

• Clogged right ear when elevating and descending (in low attitudes)
  • Obviously driving up and down mountains and large hills will cause some ear fullness but the issue here is that my right ear clogs up much sooner than my left one. Additionally, just driving through roads that are built on slight hills clogs up my right ear. This never happened before, nor a year after my tinnitus/hyperacusis started.

• Ears (Eustachian Tubes) click when I swallow/maneuver throat muscles
  • I’ve noticed that my ears click when I swallow. I know this is common and it’s simply the Eustachian tubes opening and closing. However about a month ago, the clicking has become noticeably louder. So much in fact that in a quiet setting, someone sitting closely next to me can hear it. I’m wondering if this clicking can cause damage and worsen my tinnitus/hyperacusis?

I went to see my ENT. He listened and confirmed he could hear my right ear clicking when I swallow by simply positioning his ear near mine. He said my Eustachian Tubes click rather loud. He decided to stick a camera down my nose and into my throat to inspect my Eustachian Tubes (without going into them) and he said it all looked fine. He wanted to give me a tympanometry (which I declined for obvious reasons). In his opinion I don’t have ETD but frankly he cannot explain why the clicking or fullness happen.

I want to know what you guys think of this, is anyone in the same boat with me?

I’m having a hard time figuring out if my symptoms are solely from Eustachian Tube Dysfunction, hyperacusis or a mix of issues. If I can guess, hyperacusis symptoms are mixing up with some form of Eustachian tube dysfunction making it for a harder diagnosis. Any help is welcomed.

 

Tympanometry is not too bad. It’s a 200 Hz tone and doesn’t need to be that loud. Might be worth checking if you can reproduce the fullness. You could see if it is air pressure related or muscle tension related. If it looks normal, it would likely be a muscle pulling the eardrum. The peaks between left and right would look different though.

Is your hyperacusis worse in the right ear? Is the hyperacusis pain, distortion, reactive tinitus, loudness, or some other physical discomfort or aversion?

 

Hi,

I have recently had experience with eustachian tube, which also makes me raise questions about the correlation between tinnitus, hyperacusis and the eustachian tube.

I had an incident 4 months ago where I fell asleep standing up and fell directly on the concrete with the left side of my face.

I got tinnitus and hyperacusis since that. The hyperacusis is distortion for certain high frequency sounds, and myself speaking loud. The tinnitus is high frequency, which changes day to day, between high frequency, and very high frequency. I did a hearing test, and can hear 13 kHz on the left, and 15 kHz on the right.

The last two months I have felt sudden "clicking" sounds in my left ear, and it is almost like when you pop ear after a flight, by holding nose and pressing air through mouth, without doing it since it happens by itself.

Two nights ago I was watching tv and suddenly felt this big relief on my left ear. As if I had a major click. Right after I could feel as if the eustachian tube was "very open" and easily clicking. I could feel my ear drum move a lot when I put a little bit of pressure in my mouth. Very strange. It did not change my tinnitus & hyperacusis, but it tells me that there is a strange correlation between all of this.

I honestly have not idea what my ear system looks like now, but the blow to the head in August made an impact to it.

How bad is your hyperacusis? Do you have issues with going to grocery stores and driving car etc. ?

 

It is worse in my right ear. The hyperacusis does not cause pain, does not have reactive tinnitus. It just sounds louder with Some sounds, not all. I'm not sure about the distortion but if it is what I think, then yes very slightly on some sounds.

Other issues I forgot to mention:

When I plug my right ear with my finger and I swallow, the clicking goes away (or can't be heard).

When I burp, my ears get clogged same way as when I sneeze.

When I am shaving and I stretch out my mustache muscles area (hopefully you know what i mean), I can feel my right ear clogging or muscles pulling / closing up.

When I wake up and blow my nose a bit to unclog my nostril, I can feel my right ear moving inside / clogs up slightly.

 

No issues while driving my car, I wear ear muffs everywhere else outside of my house.

Not every sound bothers me, however there are plenty that do so I have to protect. It's almost as if I have selective hyperacusis.

 

The hyperacusis sounds pretty severe if you need muffs for leaving the house.

How did you get these issues in the first place? Was there a single incident which started all of this?

 

Look up TTTS.
I have it and tinnitus and hyperacusis. I even had tubes put in my ears last year because the ear fullness was so bad.

 

I guess it is pretty severe in one ear only.

No, I developed mild tinnitus and hyperacusis from Neomycin. Then slowly in the last 16 months, I've developed multiple more tones and worse hyperacusis. There was one other incident that greatly increased the hyperacusis in my right ear but other than that nothing else. I've just developed symptoms almost monthly to be honest. I have way more. I just mentioned the ETD related ones.

 

I heard of this. Do you have any of the other symptoms I mentioned?

 

Hi @Jaysterk.

I also had balloon dilation for Eustachian Tube Dysfunction. The ENT had not put together and never did that my symptoms were due to TTTS. Surgery was a waste. ENTs do not have a clue.

I have tinnitus that reacts (gets louder) to constant sounds like fans, microwave, cars rain, wind, vacuum, sweeper, refrigerator. Right ear is worse most of the time but it changes back and forth. Some days I am constantly blowing my nose to equalize the pressure in my ears, other days not at all. My voice sounds loud. I only wear hearing protection when using vacuum sweeper which I avoid, sometimes when I drive (only if it is a bad reactive day) or when my tinnitus starts reacting to sounds and want it to stop. Some times it does not work. I use to use electric sanders, grinders, other power tools, now I am terrified of them.

Early in the day my tinnitus is not as bad as after I start hearing all the days sounds no matter how quiet it is.

No pain.

I am sorry we are going through this. I am about 18 months in and feel like I am losing my mind. Every day is a struggle and I worry how bad will it get today.

 

Did you have or ever have had clicking sounds when you swallow?

 

Yes, comes and goes. Doing it tonight. No rhyme or reason.

 

Mine is loud enough to where someone sitting next to me can hear it sometimes.