Dear All,

I woke up this morning on my annual leave (typical) with deafness/muffled hearing to my right ear.
:confused:
I do not have any other symptons, although throughout the day I have felt a little sicky at times, but not sure if this is linked.

I usually keep very well.

I have just completed a course of ketoconizole for THRUSH and do not take any regular meds. This was due to taking antibiotics, my immunity does not like them!

I do listen to music via headphones most days and use ear plugs at night as my partner snores.

When I lie down with this hearing problem, there is a type of ringing in my ear.

I swan very much as a child I am 28 now and suffered ear infections. The last one I had was 4 years ago after a plane journey.

Last night I went to a football match and stood out in the rain and wind.

I have no fever, headache or ear ache. I tried a decongestant and paracetamol just in case it may help but nothing!

I have no history of EARWAX problems (but does the ear plugs encorage this? )

If I have the TV too loud it feels strange and when my partner talks I have to ask him to be quiet as it seems to me even more muffled the louder it is and is uncomfortable.:mad:

I hope this information will help you guys give me some advice.

I start a new job Monday and feeling a little frustrated and low over this.

Hi, I have studied ear anatomy and ear problems a lot because I have ear issues myself.
But I am not a Dr.

It sounds like it is not wax build up in the outter ear, but instead an often misunderstood and misdiagnosed swelling and fluid retention in the eustachian tube or inner ear.

This often creates a clogged ear feeling as well as the pops and gurgles and sloshing you describe. It commonly causes muffled hearing issues too.

The reason it seemed better in the shower is the heat from hot water and steam reduces swelling (thats why a hot shower helps sore muscles).

There are several things you can try if this clogged inner ear happens to you again -as it likely will. It seems once you start having blocked ear, it is more likely to occur again. It is usually brought on by a cold or allergy flare up or sinus infection, it is not caused by an ear infection but it *can cause an ear infection* to occur due to the retained mucus sitting there for so long (some people have the clogged ear for months!).

To unclog your ear you need to reduce swelling in the eustachian tube so the fluid being retained can drain. It drains down your throat or can be blown out of the nose. For my home remedy that has long instructions on how to unclog ears, go to my website Home Remedy for Clogged Ears - my own clogged ear remedy that I discovered. The instructions are way too long to post here but you can buy the stuff you need at the store and do it at home.

The trick is you DO NOT put anything in your outter ear, as it cannot pass through your ear drum, and the problem lies behind the ear drum.

Hope this helps your ear problem!

Hi there I am having the same problems as the first guy mentioned and it is driving me crasy. I think the information that was given by you is very good and some what a comfort. I went to the emergency section of the hospital thinking if there is an ENT (Ears, Nose, Throat) specialist in the hospital he could take a good look at me and advise me of what I should do. No luck but the doctor did say that there could be water behind the ear drums. I have had eustiontube problems as a childe and as an adult, also one ear infection after another and finally 12 years ago one surgery and two years after that another follow up. It is pretty amazing what the doctors can do with a dental drill to remove the mastoids and peer into the inner ear. Any way thank you for your advice I just had to say perhaps this is the best information I have had yet.

God Bless you and I also need a partner can you help with this. LOL just kidding asking for your help with a partner but its lonely in this big ol world.

Weird. I've been having the same problem in both ears for weeks, with occasional pain and a wet, crunching sound in the left. I went to see my doctor yesterday and she said my ears looked great and that I may have a benign condition in which the eustachian tube collapses and causes a muffled sensation. She told me to hold my nose and blow to clear my ears. I'd been doing that for weeks, though, with no real results. I also have tinnitus, so I'm beginning to wonder if I'm just losing my hearing.

Well I tried that blowing through the plugged nose thing too because I do have eustachian tube problems as well but It didn't work. My ear drums are always convex and not normally positioned. I think this is because I have always felt comfort to pop my ear drums inward during a cold. I would usually do this with a sniff and it took away the discomfort of fullness in the eardrum.

However when I blow the ear drum out I hear better but they pop back into place shortly after.

So I have been doing a lot of research on what causes tinnitus and how to cure it. There are many homeopathic remedies that I am willing to try since I think that my Tinnitus has been caused by Ototoxicity. Most prescription drugs (743) are ototoxic and the doctors won't tell you about them.

So I bought some garlic, ginko biloba, Chelated Zinc, Liver Cleans & finally Saint John's wort liquid for the ear. I am waiting for about a week or two to see if all of these things improve my tinnitus and hearingloss.

Ototoxicity begins in the Cochlea of the inner ear. When the hair cells are dying you have tinnitus, also it can be reversed if you catch it in time they claim.

whynot57- Is your hearing muffled all the time?

I am curious to learn if you get a resolution for your clogged or plugged ears and e tube problems from the home remedies you tried such as garlic etc. I used all those too. I bought garlic oil and poured it in my ear (stinky!) I bought tea tree oil and made drops out of it, I poured hydrogen peroxide and alcohol in A lot and never cured it. But the description you give is definitely from etubes not being able to release pressure normally. They cause the ear drums to suck inwards due to a vacuum in there. Doing the valsalva Maneuver, actually forces some air up in the etubes and allows the ear drum to pop outward to its normal position where it can vibrate and produce accurate hearing, but then when the air releases naturally through the membranes, it causes a vacuum again and that makes the ear drum suck back inwards. You can read about that phenomenon here -ENT DISEASE - INFORMATION FROM THE EUSTACHIAN TUBE INSTITUTE IN GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

In fact this site claims to have a surgical method to repair dysfunctional Etubes which sounds amazing and it is full of info about what causes the Etubes to have this problem causing muffled hearing and clogged ear feelings which I describe a home remedy for on my site.
But this is by far the best site I have ever seen describing this problem in detail with videos and pictures and diagrams galore.

I have, I think, the same problem as you. It seems to happen, but only ever in my left ear, if something, such as an ear-plug or ear syringe, goes too far into the ear or is pushed too hard. The ear then closes up for about three days and I notice that the entrance to the ear feels uneven compared to the right one.
Most recently it lasted for a week and a half and involved ringing in the left ear. The ear opened up today very suddenly, though I recall something in the ear throbbing last night. It all started a few years ago after I got water in my ear in the shower. My advice would be to not use earplugs, if possible. Also, I make the best of it. My toddler's tantrums are far less annoying when I'm 70 percent deaf in one ear ; )

I just had the same thing happen to me. I woke up and had muffled hearing in both ears. It just so happened that I had a dr appt that day. He said it sounds like an eustachian tube in clogged and to use affrin nose spray 2-3 times daily for a few days. Mine was most likely caused by allergies from working outside all weekend. I just used reg generic nose spray and so far it seems to be working.
Hope this helps everyone