What Causes Constant Pressure In The Ears?

Posted on Wed, 11 Jan 2017

Question: I just got back from the ENT and I am having a breakdown because he had no answers for me. For over a week, I have felt a lot of pressure in both ears, and constant crackling. I went to urgent care last week and they prescribe a steroid and mucinex D. By day six (last day of steroid), no relief. I kept taking mucinex D and added clartin, and did 3 days of afrin, but no relief. My ENT told me I have above average hearing, my pressure is normal, no fluid, no wax, etc. He said everything looks fine and had no suggestions of why my ears feel full/are crackling, and no way to make them feel better... HELP! He also doesn't think it is TMJ because my jaw doesn't hurt.

Answered by Dr. Klarida Papaqako (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
Most possible fluid behind ear but not visible with exam

Detailed Answer:
Hello,

Thank you for using HCM to post your question.
I read it carefully and I understand your concern.

I'm afraid I cannot give much more answers then the doctor knows all the information about your problem and who has examined you.

My guess is though that even if it is not visible with the othoscope, there is still some fluid in your middle ear, otherwise there is no other explaination. But for the fluid behind the ear its not recommended medication but just advised to perform frequently the valsalva maneuver (check on YouTube and see how to do that in case you don't know).

Also, there are problems who give noise in the ears but those give gradual decrease of the hearing. So my main advice would be to consider doing an Audiogram every year to make sure that your hearing its not decreasing.

Hope this is helpful.
Let me know if you need more clarifications.
Otherwise please kindly close and rate the answer.

Regards,
Dr.Papaqako

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Prasad