What Conditions Can Cause Ear Pain Associated with Tinnitus?

My tinnitus has been pretty good recently until a couple of days ago when I woke up with very loud tinnitus and pain in both ears. It hasn't let up since.

I just came home from the doctor and had hoped to get some drops for the pain. Another doctor gave me some drops last time I had this pain and they worked, but this doctor said he can't see any inflammation and therefore the drops won't help.

I'm going to try and get into seeing my doctor at the hearing clinic as soon as possible. But last time I saw her she basically said it's tinnitus and could have many causes. That was before I had pain though. Perhaps with this new pain symptom it might help with a diagnosis?

In the meantime... my ears are SCREAMING and they HURT a lot.

PS - Can anyone recommend any over the counter ear drops I could try for the pain in my ears. Not fun.

 

See an ENT specialized in tinnitus, immediately.

 

Well that's going to take some time... I would need to get back in to my GP and then ask for a referral to an ENT... my GP yesterday said he could not see any inflammation in the ear and said the next thing would be a psychologist to deal with the sound.

I can get into seeing a hearing specialist at a place called "Bloom" in Australia... are they going to be able to help? I saw them about 12 months ago for a hearing test (which turned out pretty good).

 

I sometimes have a sharp ear ache that lasts a few seconds deep in my ear canal (right ear), and also the area next to my ear, and I'm not sure why. I don't believe I have TMJ. I've had this issue before tinnitus as well.

 

Yeah and the weird thing is the pain seems to be positional... sitting makes it worse, laying down helps.

This pain happened about 6 months ago... I went to a doctor and he said Otitis Externa and gave me a prescription for some drops (can't recall what they where)... They helped with the pain and after about 10 days of using them the pain went away. Then a couple of days ago I woke up and the pain was back along with a big tinnitus spike... was hoping to get the same drops again... but as I said this doctor said no because he couldn't see any inflammation in the ear.

There must be some associations between the pain and the tinnitus. I don't think I have TJM as I have no jaw problems or pain in that area. The pain is, as you say, deep in the ear canal.

 

The crazy thing is that after 3 days of terrible tinnitus tonight I fell to sleep on the lounge into a deep sleep. When I woke up my tinnitus is back to a low level and there is no pain. It feels sooooo nice to have low tinnitus level... you always forget just how horrible it is to be "buzzed out" with a big tinnitus spike.

This is what happens... the tinnitus spikes are related to sleep, they start and stop with sleep patterns, it started one morning when I woke up from sleep and ended tonight after a sleep on the lounge.