I am experiencing crackling randomly and what sounds like speaker distortion when I hear anything loud or even slightly high pitched (especially when I talk). I have had awful ear problems my whole life in this ear and it has been going on since fourth of July. I had ear infections so frequently growing up that I had tubes in my ears 14 times (no exaggeration), this caused scarring on my right tympanic membrane and I eventually had to have a hearing aid at the age of 7. I was embarrassed by it and refused to wear it and eventually grew out of it. At 17 I went back to get it replaced and found that my hearing had corrected itself and the scar tissue healed. Not long after that my eardrum burst after an escalating ear infection. The doctors told me that though my membrane had healed it was still scarred and thin comparatively speaking. After this I went and had surgery to correct my hearing because I was once again going deaf in that ear (the right ear). They took a skin graft from my outer ear canal to repair the tympanic membrane, and they also put in a titanium prosthesis of either the hammer or the anvil (I can t remember which). This was at 18 and done at a local children s hospital. Since that time I had not experienced any problems with my ears. I am now almost 25, a few months ago I had an ear infection in this ear, and now the crackling sound reminds me of when my eardrum burst and the distortion hurts when I speak. Do you have any suggestions for what it might be? Or do I need to go back to my ENT specialist? Might it go away on it s own?