Sudden Ear Fullness After Smoking a Cigarette

Hi,

I've had tinnitus since late 2019 which I believe to be related to visual snow (no hearing loss). I am relatively habituated.

However, within the last hour I have suddenly developed really severe fullness in my right ear after smoking a cigarette (I am not a regular smoker). This is accompanied by a deep hum.

I am really stressing out as this doesn't seem like something I could habituate to and I can barely hear myself speak out of my right ear now. It has been like this for about 30 minutes and I'm just wondering if anyone has experienced this and whether this will fade or not.

Cheers.

 

Hey. I literally had this happen last week - mine lasted about 4-6 hours. Not from a cigarette. But randomly. I bet you wake up tomorrow and it's fine. Sounds like a pretty intense fleeting tinnitus episode which is normal, but still totally sucks. Try and hydrate and get good sleep if you can!

 

It's probably just the nicotine. Everything will probably go back to normal once it is out of your system.

 

Update: the fullness is gone which I am grateful for but the deep hum is still there and it is very intrusive. It reminds me of a guitar amp when it's unplugged (if that makes sense). Any advice?

Thanks for your responses so far.

 

How long do you think nicotine lasts in your system?

Thanks.

 

If you're not a heavy user, it'll move out quickly.

 

The only advice I have is to try to ignore it. I understand it's loud and intrusive, but try not to perpetuate a negative feedback loop. You don't want to create an ingrained neural pathway for this new sound. It could just be a spike, and we know they can be short or last a long time.

 

Nicotine's half life is around 2 hours. Cotinine, the metabolite of nicotine, has a half life of about 17 hours.

 

Thanks man, appreciate it. I've done my best to ignore and mask it and it hasn't bothered me too much. The scary bit was that I could hear it over traffic which is weird since it is easily masked at home.

 

Actually it could also have been sudden hearing loss. Weird you didn't go to an ENT immediately.

To sounds: all of my 6-10 are louder than traffic or anything else. I hear them over everything, every single one of them.

So, it could be worse

 

I really doubt smoking contributed or caused or worsened your tinnitus. Lots of people smoke. My brother has mild tinnitus and he smokes. His tinnitus hasn't worsened. He doesn't have frequent ear fullness.

Is it possible something else caused the ear fullness and you are just attributing it to the smoking? We are exposed to loud noises regularly so it might be a coincidence - you had a smoke and it was perceived to worsen so you made that conclusion? But, maybe you heard a loud noise just before?

 

You're probably too late for steroids by now but what you described sounds like something serious.

This is why I have tons of steroids, Pentoxifylline and antivirals on me at all times and I keep getting new scripts every few months. I don't use them but I can visualise the desperation if this happens and you can't treat it in time.

Kill 3 possible birds with the 3 stones. Could be viral, could be inflammation, could be vascular. The three drugs I mentioned address all 3 causes.