Sneezing and Tinnitus

I have a weird question to ask. Why does sneezing increase the volume of tinnitus in my left ear and why does it have no impact on my tinnitus free ear?

 

Interesting... I think your T might be ENT related

 

Mine will do that, I guess you have reactive T like me. So the good ear has nothing that reacts and the T in the other reacts to the loud sound inside the head of the sneeze.

 

I get exactly the same thing. In my case, it is nothing to do with the volume of the sneeze either. It is the pressure inside my head that makes it spike.

 

Is this reactive tinnitus or ETD? It doesn't do the same when I hear other loud voices. And I realized that it is not related how loud the sneezing is. It does always the same when I sneezing loud or not.

 

Would more likely be ETD. Do you hear crackling sounds when you swallow?

 

Yes exactly! I told about it the ENT I have seen lately but he didn't check my tube with endoscopy. If it is ETD then is there any chance for it to be treated?

 

The problem you will encounter is that ETD is not black and white, but will be treated as such. There are many different stages that exist between normal function and total blockage. Your eNT will only concern themselves with the total blockage state as this is what results in middle ear effusion and could result in a burst eardrum and significant pain if untreated - any of the partial states are not something they will treat. For some eNTs, it is because they simply don't understand it well enough and believe it is either fine, or not, whilst for others it is because they accept that there isn't much they can do anyway/aren't prepared to try.

The tubes are actually quite complex in their structure and operation. They are not just a narrow, hollow tube, but a mixture of different tissue types, complete with cilia to assist drainage. Inflammation, thickened mucus, viruses, hormonal changes, sinus infections and I'm sure many other conditions can affect the correct operation of them. Sadly, the truth is that there isn't a huge amount that can be done with reliable success. Even if they look up your nose with a nasal endoscope, they probably won't see a great deal.

Main treatment options are (in no particular order) oral or nasal steroids (including a treatment where they place a tiny tube into the ET and daily doses of steroids are administered directly into it - this seems to be a pretty rare one), balloon tuboplasty, grommets, anti-inflammatories, nasal or oral antihistamines, decongestants (either oral or nasal as well) - but there are others that I have come across.

Generally, the results are poor for most of them in terms of actually treating the tube.

Personally, I have tried all of the medicines and none of the surgeries, something that has increased my confidence that my tinnitus is at least exacerbated by ET issues, even if not the sole source of it, as whenever something seems to leave my right tube feeling more open and less full, the tinnitus drops to almost, if not totally silent.

 

Thank you for your consideration. This is such an informative comment. So should I insist my ENT to give me nasal spray or antibiotics since my ET hasn't total blockage and everything seems alright. So should I give every possible ETD meds a try? I think there is no use in waiting till it is gone.

 

I have ETD, and I have used a nasal spray before. You could try it yourself, but for me there were no changes. Idk, ETD seems like something I could live with, as long as it doesn't turn into anything worse.

 

I'm happy to hear that you habituated your ETD I hope your T also goes away!

 

I just realized that I have a pressure when I'm talking. What is this?

 

Thanks! I hope the same goes for you

 

Pressure in your ear?

 

Yes. It is like bass sound when I'm talking.

 

I feel I have to stress that I am not a doctor, so I can only speak from personal experience, but I understand and share your frustration that most doctors don't even seem to want to try to help.

I'm not sure there is a lot of value in anti-biotics unless there is evidence of infection. Bacterial sinus infections tend to be accompanied by facial pain and/or nasal discharge lasting for several days, with the nasal discharge often being thick, dark and green or yellow in colour. If this isn't the case, then they will do more harm than good.

Sadly doctors seem to have done a complete U-turn on anti-biotics though. I understand why they are cautious, but I think it has gone too far now. 10 years ago, you couldn't stop a doctor giving them out, now, it can be really difficult to be given them even if needed. I had to endure 6 weeks of a chest infection last year before my GP would give me something. By the time he did, I was coughing up dark green mucus many times a day for weeks.

I'm not sure whereabouts you live, but throughout most of Europe, you can obtain steroid nasal sprays OTC. The most common ones are Beclometasone Dipropionate and Fluticasone Propionate. I would say that if you don't feel like you have any nasal blockage though, then again, they may not be for you, but they are generally pretty well tolerated, with typical side effects being drying of the nose lining and nose bleeds and possibly a headache.

Oral steroids are best avoided - generally - but I was desperate and thought it worth a try. I think they did reduce the inflammation a bit, as it was following the course of these that my right ear started to intermittently open. This should only be done under the supervision of a health professional though.

Nasal decongestants should only be taken for 3 days before being stopped as you can suffer a rebound, so I would suggest avoiding them. I found that taking them just once helped a little, but 8 hours later when they wore off, I was totally back to square one and since you can't keep taking them, what good would they be? They can be useful to take before flying though if you have difficulty in equalising the pressure in your ear(s).

Antihistamines might be worth trying, but again, only if you suffer from allergies. If you don't, then they dry out the nasal passages, so they could make things worse. I do occasionally suffer from allergies, so take them as and when needed, but I don't take them all the time.

Anti-inflammatories might be worth trying, but I didn't notice any appreciable benefit over the 2 days I took ibuprofen. Perhaps I should have taken them for longer, but they were giving me indigestion and I wasn't convinced they were doing much good.

Oral decongestants did work quite well for me. I took them twice a day for several days and they really kept things open, but as soon as I stopped, things went back to before. Had I kept going for longer, would they have helped more? I honestly don't know.

What I would say is that time seems to have made the biggest difference. Back in Jan 2015, my right ear was totally blocked. I could barely get air in and out and periodically it would be bad enough to draw fluid from surrounding tissue and fill with liquid. Even then, because it was intermittent, the eNT would do nothing. Over the past year+, this has slowly improved to a level whereby it feels completely open around 20% of the time and the more open it is, the quieter the tinnitus. I have no reliable explanation as to why it opens some times and closes others, although I am aware that the whole nasal lining is a very blood rich area and hormonal changes and allergic reactions can quickly and significantly cause it all to swell significantly.

 

Wow Owen. No doctor in Turkey explained something like that to me. I need to study every single word of you. Thank you for your consideration ☺

 

Try closing your mouth and hum. Do you hear that bassy sound too?

 

No. I can't. I think I hear the bass sound whenever I talk loudly and I feel tired. Last night when I just came back to home, I rushed to talk to my homie and I heard the pressure and bass all along the conversation. This happened a few times..

 

It has happened to me a few times too... It also happens at times, sometimes I hear it, sometimes I don't. Usually when that happens I just inhale some steam; it helps to an extent, but is not a permanent solution.

 

Spike in tinnitus when sneezing... Is this ETD or a neck issue? I only hear the spike in one ear, and it has gotten louder recently. Thanks.

 

When you turn your neck any certain way, or when it feels sore, does your T get affected?

 

Yes, when I stretch/rotate my neck. Not when it is sore.

 

Clearly to do with your neck then. Is it only when you stretch or rotate one way?

 

When I rotate my neck around, plus turn to the extreme right and left. Also sound changes when sneezing, yawning, etc.

 

I'm curious, how does the sound change?

 

T volume increases.

 

Then it goes back down immediately?

 

Just researching and this is the problem I'm having at the moment. I've got tinnitus in one ear, cracking, popping and the tone of tinnitus changes when I move my jaw out or sometime my neck (not always).

I've got a cold at the moment and when sneezing, the tone changes dramatically before settling back down.

I've had tinnitus and crackling for months and been through a GP and dentist and no one can give me an answer.