Tinnitus from Ear Infection or Drugs Used to Treat It

[Lord Casey]

I have read online about eardrops used to treat ear infections and swimmers ear to cause permanent hearing loss by destruction of hair cells in the organ of Corti which is also a cause for tinnitus if i am correct, I have also heard people talking about antibiotic pills causing their tinnitus.

I am curious your thoughts and what should a person do if they have an ear infection and have the choice?

 

[linearb]

I am not a doctor.

I personally wouldn't take antibiotics unless I was sure I had a bacterial infection -- a majority of upper respiratory infections are viral, in which case antibiotics are not useful. If I was completely sure I had a bacterial ear infection which I had been unable to resolve otherwise, then I'd take antibiotics, but I would probably insist on starting with something older and less scary than Ciprodex; it is a fluroquinolone, which have a much worse risk profile than a lot of other antibiotics.

When people get tinnitus as a result of a topical drug like Ciprodex, it's often because the drug is able to get in contact with the actual cochlear cilia (perhaps through a perforation in the ear drum). On the other hand, people do often report tinnitus (either long-term, or temporarily) following oral antibiotic use. In this case it may be that the drug is being absorbed systemically and again causing damage to the cochlea, but it may also be that the GI tract changes that follow antibiotic use result in stomach problems, which have neurological implications because of the impact of gut bacteria on neurotransmitters in the brain.