Right Ear Vibrating/Whooshing

Hello! I just signed up for this forum and I just want to begin by thanking everyone for their comments or advices.

Back in November 2018 I started hearing this intermittent vibrating sound in my right ear. However I have noticed that whenever I plug my ears the sound would go away. This made me believe that my right ear was reacting to external noises.

Sure enough, I realized that when the refrigerator would go off, my right ear would vibrate very loudly. If I plugged my ears and unplugged, this vibration or whooshing sound would go away for a few seconds and then come back. I also notice this when I am using headsets or hear cars run down the road.

I've been to an ENT and they just brush me off saying I have tinnitus. My hearing is perfect. I also did an MRI scan which came back negative. I am sure about this tinnitus diagnosis as this is intermittent and not a high pitched ringing. Further, when I am in a quiet room, I can hear subtle tinnitus along with this vibration in my right ear.

Let me know what you guys think!

 

Have a similar problem too. My vibration gets set off by certain frequencies i think, like when certain cars drive by or when they start up or idle. Very weird and annoying I would love some help or explanation too.

 

This sounds very similar to what I have! Do you get an echo/hollow type sound in the affected ear when you tap your head above it or neck below it?

Putting my finger in my ear, all but stops it, and as soon as I take it out it's back 'vibrating' straight away. Same with earphones, when I take them out the vibrating starts again.

Seems to get slightly better as the day goes on, by the time I go to bed it's almost gone. Then I will wake up at around 3-4am and it's back with a vengeance!

I've got a ENT appointment coming up, once we are able to go to appointments again, so hope to get some answers...

 

I've had/have this too. Some specific sounds, in specific frequencies, can make my ear vibrate. It happens very rarely nowadays but it can still happen here and there.

 

Hi there, and apologies for very slow response!

I met with an ENT consultant, who tested hearing and pressures - all fine both sides. Has deemed it to be tinnitus.

But since then (3 months) it's got louder and night and started noticing it through the day. When it's at it's loudest at night (and it is louder, not just because I'm in a quieter environment), the rhythmic length is similar to my pulse. It's not a heartbeat I hear but a rhythmic vibration if that makes sense.
As such am off to the ENT again next week as really want some answers (just so I can rest knowing it's nothing sinister), as has been going on for well over a year now.
The ENT did suggest a venous hum prior to meeting with me but after meeting thinks it's 'just' tinnitus.

How are you getting on @Samantha R ?

 

Have the same thing, I believe it's Middle Ear Myclonus or a type of tensor tympani syndrome. ENT's know nothing about this 99.9% of the time, and are generally morons outside of the normal scope of issues they cover. I want to emphasize this is NOT traditional Tinnitus. Shouldn't even be labeled as such imo.

Mine was triggered from what I believe was extreme pressure that damaged the inner muscle of the ear. It may have been already weak or a genetic predisposition to it. The day before it came on, I found out my grandfather died. First death I ever faced. I cried hard than I've ever done, and do remember the pressure in my head from just being upset all day and night. I blew my nose so many times (which I rarely do) and I'm sure that didn't help.

When I awoke the next morning, I thought I briefly heard this oscillating type of vibration hum, vrooom, slight pause, vrooom, and so on. It went away within a few minutes and thought nothing of it. Sadly, that same morning I had decided to take my mind off things and boil these Decibulz brand hard plastic ear plugs I had sitting around, so I could have something ready for my ears for long term use since there was a lot to do in the following days that would be loud. After boiling the plug, putting the earplug tip portion that goes into canal, I spent numerous minute's molding the outer soft boiled plastic to my ear canal to get a good fit/seal. For some reason, this pushing of the mold I think created pressure/suction affect in the ear, and was the final straw in an already injured state.

Once I took it out, the vibrating pulse went insane. And que a whole year of this being almost daily, all day, with brief breaks. It got triggered easily by hearing low bass sounds, loud cars idling, being in a car driving, even just laying on the ear. Putting plugs in set it off, even muffs. It took about an entire year to get it to a consistent point where it was gone 90% of the day. Sadly, even now it can still come back briefly for no reason. It can also still be triggered by driving, and other intensely low vibrating type of frequencies. Though it doesn't last as long and goes away, so there's progress.

From what I was told from others here who had some anecdotal on this issue, they saw people with MEM/TTS improve over the course of about a year, which sync up exactly with my case. Like others had said here and elsewhere, when it was at it's worst I could oddly stop it by lightly shaking my head, talking and things like that, only for it to start up the second I stopped doing that. I can always tell there's an issue coming or if I'm in a spasm(as I call it it) even if it's being masked, because there is a feeling I start to feel in that ear. It's hard to describe, but it's almost like a pressure change, or even slight soreness sometimes, that makes it feel completely off from the other ear. So I know it's having an issue.

During my initial first year, I had also suffered with random muscle spasms all across my body and random intervals. Something I believe was triggered by extreme stress and caused some central nervous system issue, which I think could of also affected perhaps the trig. nerve in the ear, which then affected the muscle. These are just my theories. Everyone has their own possible causes, but it definitely has to come back to being an either ear muscle issue and/or nerve issue with the trigeminal nerve.

 

I think I may have a similar trigger. I used earplugs lot because of loud neighbours and a demanding university and quite a lot of times I had them in while I was blowing my noise or crying. It comes and goes, but I've been having an "episode" for a month now. Praying that it subsides just as before, because that's a different kind of hell than my more regular tinnitus.

 

Exactly how I put it, it's a different kind of hell for sure. I'd take bad tinnitus over it any day. It sounds like you found your possible trigger for it, and it makes sense to me. Built up pressure/strain, for some, can certainly cause a problem in the middle ear muscles in my opinion.

This problem truly is one of the slowest conditions to heal I've ever seen. Quite literally took me almost a year just so I can be functional. Didn't think I'd make it many days to be honest, which is a sad thing to even have to say. But it got that bad at times.

Do you physically feel it deep in the ear as well, outside the actual sound you hear? To me, that is 100% what defines it being mechanical. Talking would stop it, and even shaking the head when it was in a constant spasm.

 

I am not quite sure, I definitely do feel that my head/ear is vibrating, but I am not sure if I feel it deep in the ear. Yeah, I can stop it with talking/covering my ear, etc. Now it's better, I'm not hearing the constant humming/buzzing sound currently, it sounds like when someone is having a party away from you and you can't hear the music, just the bass thumping in the distance. This is much, much better, but this episode was the longest I had, I'm dreading it coming back full force and becoming permanent. I can't really cope with my regular tinnitus either, but the low hum makes me suicidal.

 

Very similar to how I tried to describe it. I used the example of a loud idling truck outside and hearing that low type of rumbling deep in the ear but in an oscillating type of form. If it got real bad, it would be more intense in sound and feeling, other times it was slightly there in the background but even that was enough to go insane. People truly can't comprehend how bad it is compared to regular noise tinnitus.

I certainly sympathize with you, especially with the fear of it being permanent. I thought mine was and things were over honestly. But it improved, and my case seemed pretty bad. During the early stages someone else mentioned that he had spoke with others on a Facebook group about this, and in his opinion he believed it could take up to a year to recover for some, which was exactly my case. Since yours wasn't as long as me, I'd say you've got a real good shot of curbing the triggers and healing enough to never have another episode (fingers crossed). Definitely do your best to avoid the earplugs outside of absolutely necessary to preserve your hearing/not worsen tinnitus. Most importantly, no intense pressure with them in! Blowing nose, crying and all that.

 

I kind of feel that either way I'm screwed. My high frequency tinnitus is really reactive to sounds, so I need hearing protection. When I can, I use muffs, but lots of time I need double protection or earplugs. It's a which finger to bite situation.

 

As long as the plugs themselves (or muffs) are not triggering it (as in directly after taking off) then no reason to avoid it. Just avoid the triggers that can create pressure, crying, blowing nose etc., with those in.

I've battled reactive tinnitus as well for years, assuming we're describing it the same. Mine will complete with noises until that noise stops. So it goes up and goes on top of said noise. Sometimes it's worse than others, depending if my tinnitus is aggravated from some noise exposure that bothered it.

This has gotten better for me, and I'd consider mine was pretty bad at the start. I'm under the belief that desensitization can work for hyperacusis/reactive tinnitus approach simply based on how bad mine was. I only went to one musical festival when I was 18 before I had permanent tinnitus, then worsening years later (badly) from a woodsaw exposure for 10 seconds. So I'm definitely in the shitty gene causing me problems group for noise affecting my ears. After giving my ears plenty of time to heal without lots of noise, I tried over the years to get more used to sounds that bother me but I know aren't dangerous. I feel this has helped me be able to now tolerate them better and my reactive tinnitus to not react as badly. But, that could indeed just be from the natural healing process. It's hard to really say for sure.

If you describe yours the same as mine, do only certain noise types/frequencies cause a reactive tinnitus response or is it all?

 

With the low hum, I don't experience reactivity, it changes in volume, but don't know why, couldn't figure out a pattern.

My permanent high frequency, bilateral tinnitus is reactive in a way that it raises volume for some hours when exposed to louder sounds. I think it is not about the frequency for me, but loudness. It doesn't compete with outside sounds (thank God and knock on wood), it causes temporary spikes. Blowdryer, hoover (both with muffs on), shower, car, etc. always spikes me. Interestingly car noise is good for the low hum when I have it.

 

Well, my vibrating hum's worse form of not breaks and just constantly and violently going off came back yesterday night. Seems all progress and improvement has been lost if it can come back like this.

I stayed up all night Wednesday and into morning yesterday working on paperwork for my dads motion hearing yesterday. I was certainly stressed out, and not sleeping didn't help I'm sure, but I've skipped a nights sleep before with no issue. During the hearing I was stressed it how things were occurring. And the ruling didn't help. I started getting back these muscle spasm I used to get a long time ago when this ear vibrating issue/low frequency sensitivity(coming into the ear more than left, and triggering the vibrating sound in the ear). But they had basically disappeared or very infrequently popped up. But it was intense yesterday.

Then that night, I started to feel my ear inside slightly sore, a bad sign of usually when I assume the muscle tendons in the inner ear spasm. I felt like I was starting again to pick up lower freq. sounds like deep rumbling cars and such outside, coming into my right ear more. I didn't really focus on it, as I've had slight set backs that have been minimal over the last 6 months. But after watching this long video that had a very low frequency rumbling sound in the background, my ear vibrating came back INTENSE. With no pauses or breaks, just purely and violently rumbling. It's a sickening feeling that not only you hear of course, but feel. I'd take my tinnitus doubled than this. Even with a melatonin I couldn't sleep right away. It was terrible laying. It's still present today upon awaking, full strength. As of now, it's still here but less intense. But not gone.

I can't believe this type of setback has occurred, and my fear now is that the ear muscle is now extremely worn out by this and will now continue. I feel like all my healing and recovery is gone. I definitely can't go back to the way it was before, I know I won't last. It took almost a whole year to see improvements when this happened last May, and it truly broke me. I've never been the same mentally. Just dealing with this for the last almost 24h has put me into a mental decline and shutdown.

If I did something to deserve this, I could at least blame myself. But not only did getting this originally make zero sense, but for it come back like this after nothing other than normal behavior, is just mind crushing. I'm so utterly tired.