I can so relate to all these posts here, not so much with the dizziness, Thank goodness,(except if i swim,or put my head in a certain position)
But 6 months ago I woke up with a rushing sound in my ear, this gradually went to ringing to buzzing.
I have been to so many doctors and ENT's and natropaths even an osteopath to no avail...HOW FRUSTRATING!The ENT said yes I have slight hearing loss, but my ear looks normal. I can feel that my tubes are sticky, because when I open my mouth I can hear it!! Anyway I have had a CT scan as well which is normal. ( I almost wish it wasn't) just so i would have some answers!! I saw a DR 4 weeks ago, and he didn't just fob me off he said it sounds like i have a blockage in the tube behind my ear, and ofcourse they can't see it because it's behind my ears, he told me to take Dimetapp cold and flu tabs and if that helps, then that's what it is. Well I got a HUGE relief from the tabs, it didnt stop it completley, If i block my right ear i can hear the rushing in my left ear like listening to a seashell, that has never gone away, but I can live with that.
he gave me a steroid nasal spray but that seemed to make the buzzing worse.

The only problem is after a day off the cold and flu tabs the buzzing is back full on, and to be honest after 4 weeks on them, they weren't as effective anyway.

I too get sooooooo jealous of "normal" people, I look at them or look atold videos of me and think I used to be like that.

the cold and flu tabs are starting to make me sick, so i am giving them a break and going mad in the meantime.

If it is a blocked Eustachian Tube , can it be fixed?

Has anyone had any major or permanant success with grommets. Please let me know, because sometimes it feels like life just isn't worth living. I know that if this ever did get fixed I would be a totally different person!!!

If you got down this far and are still reading..THANKS!

Sometimes it just helps to know your not alone!

Hello,

If it is eustachian tube dysfuntion, then many people experience relief using saline spray - put 'saline' in to the search engine on the hearing disorders board - doris day and Zip2play have written posts about how to do this technique. Be careful though, I used this technique thinking I had ETD and it turns out I have tempero mandibular joint disorder which manifests predominantly as ear symptoms with me. For me the stuffed feeling in the ears is caused by muscular spasm, so the saline technique just made me feel worse. Having said that people with TMJD can get ETD caused by the muscular spasm.

Yes, people can experience major relief with grommets -put Wendy222 in to the search engine on this board, she had success getting rid of her blocked ears with grommets. To be honest, before you investigate techniques for getting rid of eustachian tube dysfunction you should get the docs to run a tympanogram and more comples ear pressure tests on you. This should tell you for sure if there is fluid trapped in there. Have they done this? They are very simple tests, inexpensive and take all of five minutes. These are the tests for ETD.

Hi, thanks for replying,
I thought my ear probs were caused my TMJ, the dentist thought so too, but after having Xrays, apparantly not!
I have just made an appointment today to see another ENT specialist and apparantly he is going to do tests on the ear drums etc to see if there is fluid trapped there. In the meantime I think I am gojng to try the saline spray..I feel so dizzy and my ear is buzzing so bad today, that surely it couldn't make me feel any worse??/ I hope not !!

Umm sorry i know this may sound stupid, but where is the hearing disorders board? I can't see any sort of search bar here.
Thanks!

Hi Starwood,

At the bottom of this page is a little box that say 'hop to' on it there is a list of boards - scroll on the bar and go to hearing disorders. Once you are in the hearing disorders board, at the top of the page is the word search, press on that, then put the words you are looking for in to the search words box. This is the way you search for things within each board. It's good that the ENT is going to run ear pressure tests, this will give you a clearer picture of what's going on.

As for telling that you don't have tmj from an X ray - how !!!!? My tmjd is ALL muscular - my jaw joints are not displaced but the muscles around my tm joint are in spasm - this was ascertained by a tmjd specialist who did take X rays (normal) but ascertained through asking me to move my mouth around, feeling the muscles etc... that I do, nevertheless, have tmjd. Some people's problem with tmjd is ONLY muscualar - an X ray ONLY rules out whether the tmjd is caused by displaced joints. I simply don't know whether your E tube problems are caused by tmjd - but I do know an X ray can't rule out having it. If you have good reason to believe you have it find yourself a dentist who specialises in tmjd - or an oral surgeon - they are the people qualified enough to tell you if you have this.

Hi,
Thanks again for the reply, I did manage t find the hearing disorders board :-). My dentist said he could hear a definate clicking in my jaw,a nd he filed down my back teeth, because they were all touching, but no relief at all.I just tried the Saline spray. My ears feel pretty good at the moment that fullness feeling has gotten alot better, and they are not hissing as loud, so I guess it isn't my jaw..who knows???
The doctors certainly don't !!!

I have tinnitus in my left ear and was told by an ENT that is was due to slight high frequency hearing loss in my left ear.

In the past two weeks, I've started using Saline nasal spray. I also was given some Flonase for some sinus pressure I had about 5 days ago. Well, I don't know if its the Flonase (probably) or the saline, but my tinnitus has gotten MUCH better. I barely notice it now. The only time it bothers me is after I exercise - just discovered that about an hour ago. I ran on my treadmill for about 30 minutes (finally felt good enough to do it since my tinnitus was better) and now, its worst again, but it is slowly subsiding back to where it was.

Anyone else experience worsening tinnitus after exercise? I also posted a new thread on the topic...

I'm so glad I found this board..I've had a roaring sound in my left ear for about 1 1/2 years now. I've had every test you can imagine and the ENT said that it was hearing lose..But if my ear didn't roar like that my hearing would be good..I'm going to try the saline spray hopefully it works. If any one knows of any other remendies please let me know..
Thanks, gsouth