ETD Is not only caused by nasal congestion or allergies.
It could also be caused by bad posture, jaw misalignment, TMJ issues, or jaw and facial muscle misuse and tightness.
This is my story with ETD: one day while in the car with friends going hiking, I put on my AirPods to listen to some music but my right AirPod was sending weak bass that wasnt as rumbly or punchy as the left one. After an hour of trying to deal with it, the inequality became unbearable, so I borrowed a friends pair of AirPods, only to notice the exact same thing. After trying three different pairs of earbuds, I realised that the ear itself is the problem. Research and symptom-checking, lead to the conclusion that ive got ETD .
For seven months, I visited three different ENTs two or three times each. All of them prescribed different nasal sprays, pills, and cleansers, giving out exercises and instructions to follow. I was exhausted by the ETD so I followed every instruction obediently.
When I tell you nothing worked, I truly mean it. Things even got worse, some days I would wake up with headaches and dizziness that lasted until the time I went to sleep at night. Painkillers did nothing. Dizziness, disorientation, constant brain fog, and daily panic attacks became a problem for five months straight. Even listening to music pissed me off or stressed me out because of the constant focus on that feeling of inequality between the ears. Having those symptoms every single day for all those months caused an unbelievable amount of stress.
The last time I went to an ENT was when the doctor said that since all exercises and steroid nasal sprays failed, this might just be a chronic problem where the only aim should be making it a bit better and not to fix it completely, He told me to try to "get it out of my head," and Thus learning how to live with it. Getting it out of my head makes sense, but learning to live with it? No chance. If thats how things were going to be for the rest of my life It didnt even feel worth it to live.
I completely abandoned Nasal sprays out of frustration and mental exhaustion while trying to get used to it. My Mental health crashed, with my mind being fixated on the pressure inequality from the moment I woke up to the moment I fell asleep for two months straight. I ended up exhausted and depressed. Eventually, working with a psychologist helped me avoid constantly thinking about it, but the feeling of helplessness still drained me.
One day, I was massaging my face and temples to relieve my headache. Then I moved down to massage the jaw for a few minutes and felt something physically shift, suddenly a sense of balance returned, disorientation had faded, and moreover, the right ear's bass response had slightly but noticeably improved, for a few minutes i finally had some relief. After a little bit of research I found out that TMJ problems can directly cause ETD like symptoms, which lead to changing daily habits and relaxing my neck and jaw muscles to try and relieve the pressure. A week later, a dentist confirmed that my right TMJ is completely fucked up and recommended i get an appointment with a gnathologist.
Turns out chronic stress caused jaw and neck muscles to tense up and spasm. All that stress about ETD was actually making the ETD worse by triggering constant jaw clenching, night teeth grinding, bad posture, and mouth breathing that threw the right TMJ out of alignment. I think I was the first person in history to get happy after being diagnosed with a dysfunction. And you cant blame me, all those ENTs made it seem like I was broken and couldn't be fixed.
Im currently researching different treatment methods with different doctors like chiropractors, acupuncturists, and gnathologists.
So if nasal sprays haven't done anything and symptoms apart from ear fullness include immense headaches, clicking or grinding sensations on the jaw joint when chewing or yawning, difficulty opening the mouth wide, jaw locking, or soreness and tightness around the face that improves when lying down or changing posture, maybe ETD isn't caused by inflammation, congestion, or allergies. Have a look at the jaw instead. Also, wisdom teeth popping out around the same time ETD started is another massive tell. If you are sure that your jaw is fine, have a look at other causes like stress or eye strain or maybe even weight loss. I don't know if the ENTs I visited didn't know that ETD could be caused by something else but not knowing this sooner wasted a year of my life. So don't give up Ive heard stories of people being cured after years of dealing with ETD.
Also keep in mind that I have other co-occurring conditions like strabismus so my symptoms like disorientation might have been much more severe and intense, but looking into TMJ issues is still 100% worth it even if your symptoms don't relate perfectly with mine.