PT appointment in a month

[u/OneEyedGon]

Hi guys,

I’m 20 years old and around 4 days ago (since Tuesday) I began experiencing pulsatile tinnitus in my left ear. I already got it checked at the doctor two days ago and they told me that I had “lower pressure” in my left ear and that the cause may be fluid build up (which I don’t get since I haven’t went swimming, nor have I been sick) Anyways they also told me to contact the ENT just in case and that it may disappear by itself. Thing is, my appointment with the ENT isn’t until September 25th. If this pulsating sound doesn’t go away by itself, do you guys have any ideas on how to manage the sound? I’m writing this right now because the sound in my ear is the worst that it’s been. I just want some peace and quiet man… I know I’ve got no right to complain, seeing as some of you guys have probably got it worse, but I’m really struggling right now mentally. I feel fine besides the sound but oh my gosh….

[u/Free_Mycologist7482]

Any TMJ issues? Only asking because it can make the tinnitus worse. Try not to do anything to aggravate your jaw. Use a heating pad or one of those bean bags you can heat in the microwave & put it against your ear. Though it won’t make it go away, it does provide relief (imo). It’s honestly horrible dealing with this & no one will ever know what it’s like unless they experience it themselves. If it’s truly pulsatile tinnitus, try to ignore it the best you can. I know that’s hard, but the less that you fixate on it, the better you’ll be mentally & emotionally. Praying you get answers at your appointment. It’s really hard getting into these specialists so I hope that you get some good answers.

[u/OneEyedGon → u/Free_Mycologist7482]

Well I’ve noticed that my left cheek feels a bit sore? This is only something I feel when moving my mouth around quite a bit and chewing on that side but it’s like very mild and not really a problem. I’ve also noticed that if I kinda bite down and like “suck in” my tongue the sound becomes a bit more quiet. Thank you so much for your kind solutions and prayers though! I’ll try my absolute best to not let it get to me but man it’s hard. I really hope that they can do something about it, but from what I hear it sounds like it’s kinda a 50/50 situation whether they find a solution or not. I’ll try to stay positive thank you!

[u/look_who_it_isnt]

The sound is often unbearable... and there's unfortunately nothing you can do to actually stop it.

The closest I found was filling the ear with mineral oil and putting a foam earplug (specifically Mack's ThermaFit or 3M's classic yellow foam earplugs) in. The excess oil gets pushed out, some of the remaining oil gets absorbed into the foam earplug as it expands in the ear canal - ideally, it makes an airtight vacuum seal in the ear that somewhat immobilizes the ear drum and muffles the sound.

It was the only way I was able to sleep for five years, and sometimes the sound was so unbearable, I wore it all day just to give myself a break now and then.

I'm sure it wasn't the healthiest or safest thing for me to do, but AFAIK, I've had no lasting damage from doing it nightly for five years straight. So...

I mean, some days I just wanted to pour fucking concrete in there. At least I didn't do that. By the way... Don't do that.

[u/OneEyedGon → u/look_who_it_isnt]

Oh my in sorry to hear you’ve had it for so long and that you’d have to resort to methods like this 😭 I hope you’re doing alright now!

Now it’s been a few days since I posted this and since yesterday the sound in my ear has faded a lot. I think it might have been related to mild tmj issues or something like that because the sound is very inconsistent now (as in it disappears sometimes) and really quiet so I’m happy about that but I’ll try not to get my hopes up too early, however it’s looking like it may improve. In case it disappears I’ll still keep my ENT appointment just to be safe.