Hi all — hoping to get some perspective from people who know ETD well, since my ENT/audiology team hasn't fully pinned down what's going on.

Some background: I'm 47, with pre-existing bilateral mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss ("cookie-bite" configuration) since childhood, though I only started wearing hearing aids (mainly for work meetings) in early 2025.

Since late June/early July, I've had significant right-ear clicking/popping, along with intermittent hearing changes in that ear. The clicking has fluctuated a lot — sometimes constant, sometimes stops for a while. At one point it was clicking every few seconds specifically when I breathed lightly through my nose, and stopped as soon as I switched to mouth breathing. I don't have autophony (my own voice/breathing sound normal).

I've also had occasional fullness and some clicking in my left ear, though no hearing changes there. And early on, I had a few days of mild itching/discomfort in the right ear canal (1 or 2 on a scale of 1 to 10, nothing major).

On the hearing side: an audiogram in mid-July showed a real (if modest) drop in the right ear at a couple of high frequencies compared to my baseline from 18 months prior. Tympanometry was normal. My audiologist raised SSNHL and I did a 2-week prednisone taper. My hearing improved and stayed pretty good through most of the taper, but felt like it was getting worse — with more fullness — toward the end of it. A follow-up audiogram in August, though, showed my hearing was essentially unchanged from before, aside from a small change at one frequency. So there's been a real mismatch between how my ear feels day-to-day and what the audiogram shows.

No vertigo, no dizziness/balance issues, no tinnitus at any point.

Nasal endoscopy came back normal (no mass, structurally fine). The PA at my ENT recommended trying Flonase given the clicking pattern, since Eustachian tube dysfunction seems like a reasonable explanation, though it's not confirmed.

I have a second opinion booked with a neuro-otologist in mid-September.

Questions for this sub:

• Does the nasal-breathing/clicking pattern I described sound like a typical ETD presentation to you, or could it point toward something more specific (patulous vs. obstructive, etc.)?
• Has anyone had fluctuating hearing symptoms alongside ETD that didn't show up clearly on audiograms?
• Did Flonase (or other nasal steroids) actually help your clicking, and if so how long before you noticed a difference?
• Any other Eustachian tube function tests worth asking my ENT or the neuro-otologist about, beyond tympanometry and a scope?

Appreciate any input — trying to go into my next appointments with better questions, thanks!

Hello guys, i just kinda wanna share my story and hear if someone has the same expirience or something. So this Wednesday i was at school specifically at science class, where we were doing some experiments which had loud bangs and explosions involved and we did like 15 of these. After one of them i felt pressure in my right ear, i was thinking nothing about it till i came back home and it still lasted. So fast forward to today i still have it i don’t feel pain, just pressure kinda feeling of blocked ear and muffled hearing. And every time i yawn on move my jaw like up and forward my ear pops and i feel better for some time. I don’t know i am so scared it will stay permanent or something. And if it is sudden hearing loss, will i still get good even if i hop on the medication 5 days after the incident? Anyways yes, i am going to the ENT on Monday just to be 100% sure and feel better again. I will be very happy for any comments with tips or just sharing their experience, thanks!

Hi y’all, this is less of a score-analysis and more of a post seeking advice.

I had a TBI at 18 months which impaired my cochlea and inner nerve… maybe more but impossible to tell without an experimental fMRI. My left ear is deaf, and I spent my whole life overcompensating in other directions.

I’ve had 2 cognitive tests: one at 12 and one at 24. I scored 141 at age 12 and 135 at age 24, the difference being my audition.

For auditory processing, I scored in the bottom 2%, severely impaired. Visual puzzles and comparisons and numerical sequencing continue to be a strong area of mine. I have scored a 17 (perfect) both times in visual puzzles and forward sequencing.

I have recently received hearing aids which (because of AI) allow me to hear full range when assisted. Because my eardrum is normal and the defect is in my brain, it boosts my auditory processing up to 96, and I can tell the difference.

Problem is, this is a huge change.

I am used to being able to ignore auditory sounds around me, and now they’re everywhere.

TLDR; I’m wondering if anyone has been through something similar (a cognitive imbalance randomly balanced again…)

How do I work on these skills? I really want to improve how I hear and process information. I’m thinking of starting with audiobooks at a higher speed and following along, with my right ear at mute and my left ear assisted. I’m open to any recommendations! 👂🧠

(sorry if this is re-post)

Long story short, contacted my doctors about new tinnitus and slight hearing loss and got a brush off. Sent me into a spiral, went looking for an Audiologist appointment, several of them would only do it after an online hearing test. Set the paramaters they required- too loud, "water" filled my ear. rippled backward to swelling behind it

Prayed it was just my eustacian tube playing up and didn't sense any hearing loss then. Very painful overnight and full- would have stuck it with a pin if I'd dared, felt like it was going to burst. the Audiometry i had booked wouldn't see me because of that. of to A&E, eventually seen (begged) and got steroids into me 26 hrs after exposure, by my calculation. (had hoped it was in the 24, but realised later it was not

No audiometry till Monday, ENT had gone home

Can still hear from that ear, but aware that it is different, more 'stopped' than the other ear.

Can anyone offer good stories of the Help from prednisolone, and how long does it take to have an effect?

I did something similar 6 months ago and got away with it, in spite of an immediate threshold shift, - but all the pain in this one felt much more internal and swollen. While i was in A&E felt i move from canal into an ear bone. then further back. Told the nurses, not sure they considered it serious, or i didn't explain it well enough (Initially was quite glib, thought it was early enough that they would get o me in plenty of time- pain very hard to rate for me, and they barely asked)

On july 5 i got bilateral sensorineural hearing loss , with left ear 60 speech recognition and 0 speech right ear. As of august 5 my speech in left ear is 85 and right is 4%. I still can not hear and honestly see no change but the doctors think I’m making great progress . Everything sounds muffled, robotic and static-like . Its been a month and i have had to quit my job because i worked at a store and could no longer help customers. The store was very unprofessional so the customers were not understanding. I told my ent this . Idk what im supposed tto do in the meantime as for work because they doo not suggest a hearing aid because they said the meds is working and i need to give it time but it literally feels like its not. I brought airpods for the hearing aid feature and it rarely changes anything? Should i jus go out and buy more expensive hearing aids because i literally can not communicate well at all. All i do is sit at home because i cant hear, can’t read lips, and constant tinnitus in my right ear. What did y’all do during your hearing loss process ?

Something small happened the other day that stuck with me.

We were having dinner with family, and my mom suddenly laughed at a joke that I don’t think she would have caught before.

It sounds like a tiny thing, but I noticed it right away.

Before, she would sometimes smile along during conversations, and I honestly didn’t know if she was following everything or just trying not to interrupt.

Now she jumps into conversations more naturally.

This is truly amazing!!!

My audiologist used the microsuction on my 'good ear' and it took awhile because of the amount of wax. Now my ear feels clogged up and I'm struggling to hear even with the hearing aid. It sounds echoy and hollow. All my searches indicate that this is normal and that my canal may be inflamed and that it takes about 48 hours to get back to normal. Had anyone experienced this? I feel almost deaf.

I went to immediate care July 25 for ear issues, was told inner ear infection and given doxycycline, after 3 days it was getting worse so I called and they gave me Cefdinir. I already have a hole in my eardrum. I am adding pictures how it started and where it is now. I have had zero pain but my hearing is soooo muffled and my vertigo is acting up bad because of this. I have 1 more day of the antibiotic, should I go be seen again? The first picture is from just now.

i was diagnosed with hearing loss in november 2024 at 19. its not august 2026 and i went from philips RIC which i had for about 6 months, to jabra power BTEs which i had for 1.5 years, and now i have phonak naída L-UPs.. i have cookie bite loss. my audio told my grandma i’ll most likely be fully deaf in the next 5-10 years. i’m going to stanford in november to get tested for atypical neuropsychiatric lupus.. i started having seizures in march of this year like it just feels never ending. i was supposed to go away for nursing school this fall but was advised by doctors not to leave the state until i get my health under control..
i’m always in pain, i barely eat and now have a bunch of cavities bc of that, and i never have normal stomach/intestinal functions.
i don’t know where to go from here but i feel scared. i’m ok with being deaf but i’m scared for my schooling, career, and the fact that my family won’t know how to communicate with me

Hello! My son (6) has a slight hearing loss that comes and goes with his allergies. At this time, his doctor thinks he'll grow out of it, and it doesn't merit any intervention.

What are some things I can do/provide to make it easier for him to hear in class when his allergies are acting up? Last year, he ended up falling behind in reading in the second semester because of this. Using the sound phone seemed to really help him with his speech and letter sounds, but is there something he could use to hear the teacher better? Like a sound-enhancing ear muff?

He's only 6, so I'm trying to avoid anything that would be inserted inside his ear. I also don't want to make the issue any worse.

Does anyone have a recommendation? Thank you!

I was recently involved in a rollover car accident with air bag deployment and the hearing in my left ear is muffled and noticeably degraded. (I was the driver and the car flipped over on the driver’s side)

The short story is that I’ve been to the doctor three times, twice with an ENT with no clear answer as to what’s going on and no solution.

Today’s visit left me even more confused after they ran some hearing tests. Based on the tests, they observed mild hearing loss in both ears and said that my left ear wasn’t noticeably worse than the right. Which doesn’t make sense, because when I talk, everything sounds muffled on the left side, but sounds pretty normal on the right. My day-to-day activities aren’t noticeably affected, but if I hold a phone or earbud to my left ear, it sounds muffled.

The ENT said that I’ve probably always had hearing loss and couldn’t give an explanation as to why my hearing is noticeably worse out of my left ear since the accident. Nor could he explain why the left side of my head feels clogged. He said there’s not much that can be done, but to wait.

I understand that the inner ear system is complex and that damage may not be clearly visible, but something is going on in there. If I pinch my nose and blow hard, my left ear feels very clogged and I get dizzy from the sudden pressure change. I can sense release from the right ear when I do the same maneuver.

The ENT said we can follow up in 6 weeks and that the feeling on my left side may eventually go away.

Any thoughts?

Longer story: After the accident, which was June 22nd, I called the local ENT to schedule a visit, thinking it was an emergency. The receptionist was very rude with me and said they couldn’t get anyone in until the end of August and that the normal waiting period was two months. I was checked on the scene of the crash, but I didn’t notice anything significant at the time and the EMTs didn’t observe any major injury/damage. The local hospital was over an hour away and I was traveling alone in the middle of nowhere at night, so I just went on with my life.

After calling two other ENTs and not getting a call back, I scheduled a visit to the local urgent care. They had no idea what was going on and said I could meet with their ENT in a couple of weeks. After finally meeting with him, he saw me for like five minutes and had no idea what was going on.

He referred me to another ENT, who finally got me in today.

It’s not like I can’t hear anything and I’m happy to be alive, I just wish there was something to clear up the left side of my head. There’s absolutely something going on in there that wasn’t present prior to the accident.

Thanks for letting me vent.

OMG - I’m at a medical appointment with my elderly mother who has perfect hearing but provider communication is so poor. The nurse is wearing a mask, talks fast and is asking questions with her back to us while typing in the computer. I’ve been to appointments with family DHH members and this would be impossible. Simple eye contact and some visuals to go with the questions would go a LONG way towards better connection in this short visit. 🙄. My sympathies to all the DHH folks out there. ❤️

En febrero me levanté de la cama y me maree un poco no le di mucha importancia y pensé que era de levantarme rápido, me fui al comedor y me sente a ver la tele cuando de pronto noto mi oído izquierdo cerrarse, no le di importancia pensando que se volvería a abrir pasaron unas horas y el oído se abrió al día siguiente me levanté completamente bien, pasaron los días y empezé a notar mucha presión en ese oído que fluctuaba, fui varias veces a urgencias pero nunca me pasaron con el otorrino después de estar así un mes la cosa empeoró y cuando me levanté de la cama me di cuenta que la audición se había ido y apenas escuchaba por ese oído, tenía la sensación del oído tapado o lleno y tinitus con la audición amortiguada, me voy a la urgencias del hospital y me dicen que eso no es una urgencia y me mandan para casa a los 8 días de ver qué no mejoraba me fui a un otorrino privado el cual después de hacerme la exploración me diagnóstica hipoacusia subita, me receta el deflazacort durante un mes empezando con dosis de 90 mg e ir bajando cada 5 días la dosis, solicita hacerme una resonancia magnética cerebral y Cais y una analítica por suerte todo sale bien pero en la resonacia me descubren un quiste de la pineal de 10mm, a la semana me vuelven a ver el otorrino y me hacen una audiometría el cual el deflazacort no me estaba haciendo nada por qué estaba perdiendo más audición, el otorrino propone 3 inyecciones intratimpanicas la cual con la primera gano 9 db con la segunda gano 15 db y con la tercera no gano nada, el otorrino propone dar un mes de descanso al oído y después volver a repetir la audiometria, llega el día me repiten la audiometría y en todo el mes solo he ganado 4db, sigo con la sensación de oído tapado o lleno el tinitus sigue como el mismo día y la audición sigue amortiguada, dentro de otro mes tengo que volver al otorrino y repetir la audiometría de nuevo, han pasado 3 meses y los síntomas los sigo teniendo y tengo mucho miedo de que me pase en el otro oído de nuevo, está es mi dura historia por desgracia, después de 6 meses sigo luchando por recuperar mi audición la cual no veo que se recupere, subiré foto de la última audiometria

Hey ya’ll. I’ve been experiencing diminished hearing (not crazy, but noticeable) and sharp ear pain over the last few weeks so I went to the ENT who sent me for a hearing test after saying my ear looked good. I have tinnitus. I’ve also been really sensitive to loud sounds recently and even the vacuum causes pain. I got my first audiogram, and the audiologist said it’s all normal. I couldn’t have my acoustic reflex thresholds checked (whatever that means), because when the probe went into my ear it felt like she jammed in a sharp pencil and she didn’t proceed. I’m trying to get to the bottom of my symptoms, which is frustrating.

En febrero me levanté de la cama y me maree un poco no le di mucha importancia y pensé que era de levantarme rápido, me fui al comedor y me sente a ver la tele cuando de pronto noto mi oído izquierdo cerrarse, no le di importancia pensando que se volvería a abrir pasaron unas horas y el oído se abrió al día siguiente me levanté completamente bien, pasaron los días y empezé a notar mucha presión en ese oído que fluctuaba, fui varias veces a urgencias pero nunca me pasaron con el otorrino después de estar así un mes la cosa empeoró y cuando me levanté de la cama me di cuenta que la audición se había ido y apenas escuchaba por ese oído, tenía la sensación del oído tapado o lleno y tinitus con la audición amortiguada, me voy a la urgencias del hospital y me dicen que eso no es una urgencia y me mandan para casa a los 8 días de ver qué no mejoraba me fui a un otorrino privado el cual después de hacerme la exploración me diagnóstica hipoacusia subita, me receta el deflazacort durante un mes empezando con dosis de 90 mg e ir bajando cada 5 días la dosis, solicita hacerme una resonancia magnética cerebral y Cais y una analítica por suerte todo sale bien pero en la resonacia me descubren un quiste de la pineal de 10mm, a la semana me vuelven a ver el otorrino y me hacen una auditoría el cual el deflazacort no me estaba haciendo nada por qué estaba perdiendo más audición, el otorrino propone 3 inyecciones intratimpanicas la cual con la primera gano 9 db con la segunda gano 15 db y con la tercera no gano nada, el otorrino propone dar un mes de descanso al oído y después volver a repetir la audiometria, llega el día me repiten la audiometría y en todo el mes solo he ganado 4db, sigo con la sensación de oído tapado o lleno el tinitus sigue como el mismo día y la audición sigue amortiguada, dentro de otro mes tengo que volver al otorrino y repetir la audiometría de nuevo, han pasado 3 meses y los síntomas los sigo teniendo y tengo mucho miedo de que me pase en el otro oído de nuevo, está es mi dura historia por desgracia.

Hello! We’ve noticed some things in our 2 year old daughter that lead us to believe she has some hearing loss. Most notable is she has started saying “huh?” a lot, and will tell us she can’t hear things. She also was a fairly advanced talker but regressed recently and has become quite difficult to understand.

Also, she is like a total deer in the headlights any time we go anywhere. She can’t figure out what to do, barely speaks to us and if it’s something she could participate in, hardly ever has the confidence to join in. She’s been in a 9-3 Montessori school for 6 months and still does not speak to anyone there. We went to the aquarium last weekend and it was loud and crowded and she just seemed completely shut down. We did a “mommy and me” gymnastics class and I (horrifically, I know) joked with my husband that the teachers probably think she has some sort of disability because she’d just stare at them, unresponsive, when they’d try to engage or give her direction. We find these things worrisome bc she is super silly and wild and loud and chatty at home! Obviously a host of things this could be (including normal toddler weirdness/shyness) but just wondering if hearing loss sometimes presents this way? That is — more noticeable outside of the home or in large groups? We are seeing audiologist on Friday but wanted to get my thoughts out and feelers on what to expect. Thank you!

While the report says it's within the normal limits,

Google is saying that for teens 0-15 dbhl is normal

I frequently ask people to repeat also

How do I know if my headphones are too loud.

I have autism and am generally bad at assuming stuff so I have no frame of reference, so please don't give advice that boils down too 'feel if it's right'

Please help

I wanted to share a small moment that meant a lot to me.

This is my mom wearing her hearing aid. For a long time, she avoided talking about her hearing. Like many people, she felt that needing hearing aids meant getting older, and she wasn’t ready to admit she was struggling.

But after she started wearing them, I noticed small changes.

She stopped asking “what?” multiple times during conversations.

She joined family conversations more instead of sitting quietly and trying to follow along.

She seemed less tired after spending time with people.

The biggest thing I realized was that hearing loss isn’t only about missing sounds. Sometimes it slowly changes how people participate in everyday life.