r/etd

Hello everyone. I have had ETD ( I believe) for over 2.5 months now. It feels like ages and just doesn’t go away.

~ started on June 15 ( peak pollen grass)

~ I have a popping sound when I swallow

~ I feel in flares unbalanced and dizzy ( some weeks worse then others)

~ it’s hard to clear out pressure of my ears

~ i feel like I am on a swaying boat.

~ i already take some meds like sprays but don’t seem to do much.

Does somebody know how long this can last? Pollen season might be over soon and this is ruining my life like so much. Have others experienced this- and what worked for you?

Anyone have some tips and does this even sound like ETD? I believe so…

is it normal to feel like absolute shit? ive had etd for 9 months and i just got ear tubes along with another balloon dilation and today, my right ear feels like theres a pool in it and the fullness is worse than ever, what do i do?

I have etd and noise sensitivity for 2 years. I have been to more ents. They all prescribed me antihistamine, antibiotics and steroid nasal spray.

Has anyone tried any of those? What was your experience?

(26M) Does ETD ever get better for fuck sake?

I’m honestly not even sure how long I’ve had this. It feels like it crept up on me slowly, then got noticeably worse around the same time I had a very mild sore throat that only lasted a few days.

Around that time, the inside of my nose also became insanely dry and inflamed. It actually hurt just to breathe through it. Every doctor I saw said it looked like rhinitis caused by inflammation.

Another weird thing is that I barely seem to produce any mucus. When I do manage to get some out, it’s usually a tiny amount and very thick, sticky, gooey and very white. It never feels like anything is actually draining properly.

This all started while I was traveling through Indonesia, so at first I figured pollution, humidity, or something environmental had triggered it.

I’ve been back in NY for over a month now and have tried pretty much everything I can think of. I completely changed my diet to an anti-inflammatory one, cut out caffeine, regularly steam, use prescription nasal sprays, and do weekly neti pot rinses.

Little to no relief.

The ear pressure is sometimes unbearable, and my left ear has always been significantly worse.

Some days, especially when the pressure isn't as bad, my ears sound like Rice Krispies after you pour milk over them. Constant little crackles and pops.

Other days, the pressure feels so full and intense that I barely get any crackling at all. Instead, I’ll get these low pops, crackles, or weird whooshing sounds whenever I swallow or open my mouth.

I’ve also been to multiple ENTs at this point and still don't really have any answers. I’ve never had allergies in my life, and I never had ear problems growing up, which makes this whole thing even more frustrating.

I guess I’m mostly looking for some hope from people who have actually been through this.

Did your ETD eventually go away? How long did it take? And was there anything that genuinely helped you recover?

Because holy shit, this is a nightmare.

Hi everyone I’ve been dealing with chronic eustachian tube dysfunction since about March. It made my left eardrum retract for a while and constant fluid in my left ear. Because of this it has led to scar tissue buildup in my left ear. It’s incredibly uncomfortable and makes weird sounds when I’ve move my mouth and it’s very annoying. I brought this up to multiple doctors and everyone said I just I have to learn to live with it.

I know a lot of people in this group probably get the same reaction from Dr’s. but I’m just wondering if anyone here is dealing with the same thing and if they have found relief because it is just so annoying and I do think the inflammation contributes to other symptoms.

A few days ago I got symptoms that seemed like an ear infection that kept getting worse so I went to the doctor but they checked me and said it was etd. I got nasal spray and apparently in two weeks, if it continues it can get infected. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do after two weeks. I don't think I’m supposed to be doing nasal all the time. It could be allergies but I also had tinnitus before this happened on the same ear from time to time. I now have permanent buzzing in the effected ear.

Sudden right ear fullness/muffled hearing that keeps fluctuating — normal audiogram and normal ENT exam. Has anyone experienced this?

I’m hoping to hear from anyone who has experienced something similar because I’m honestly pretty stressed and confused right now.

Last Friday morning around 9 AM, I woke up, lifted my head off my pillow, and suddenly noticed that my right ear was extremely blocked. I could still hear, but everything was incredibly muffled and it felt like my ear was completely plugged. I also felt very disoriented/dizzy because the hearing between my two ears was suddenly so different. I had never experienced anything like this before.

I saw my family doctor that day. He examined my ear and only saw a small amount of wax. He flushed it out, rechecked my ear, and didn’t see any significant redness, swelling, inflammation, or anything else that would explain the hearing change. Because the hearing loss had come on so suddenly, he was concerned about possible sudden sensorineural hearing loss and told me I needed an urgent audiogram. I couldn’t get one that day, so he sent me to the ER.

I waited around 10 hours in the ER and was eventually seen around midnight. The ER doctor also didn’t see an obvious infection, wax buildup, or significant inflammation, but he said he saw some fluid behind my eardrum and thought it was Eustachian tube dysfunction. He did tuning-fork testing and recommended conservative measures like steam/warm showers and pressure-equalizing techniques.

Over the next few days, the symptoms kept fluctuating. At times the right ear felt 80–100% blocked and I felt dizzy/disoriented enough that I didn’t feel safe driving. Other times it would improve significantly, sometimes to the point where it felt almost completely clear. I also had a low humming/ringing sensation at times.

I tried warm showers/steam, saline spray, gentle jaw/facial massage and stretches, swallowing/yawning techniques, and Valsalva. I could never reliably get the right ear to “pop.” The symptoms would sometimes improve later in the day and then feel much more blocked again after waking up.
By Monday evening, my hearing felt almost completely normal again, although I had a strange pressure/fullness sensation in both ears. Then Tuesday morning, the right ear felt somewhat muffled/blocked again, probably around 50% compared with how severe it was initially. I could still hear, but I couldn’t hear my own voice as clearly inside my head on that side. It’s like a full feeling inside my head.

I finally saw an ENT today and had a full audiogram. Here’s the part that has me confused: my hearing test came back above average. The ENT said I do NOT have sudden sensorineural hearing loss, and he doesn’t currently see fluid behind my eardrum or evidence of an Eustachian tube problem. So objectively, my hearing is excellent even though the ear can still feel very full/blocked.
Because he isn’t sure what’s causing the sensation, he’s ordering autoimmune bloodwork as well as a CT and MRI to investigate further.

Some other potentially relevant things: I’ve had jaw clenching/TMJ-type issues for about a year. I clench my jaw while sleeping and sometimes wake up with sore teeth/jaw, and occasionally get pain around my ear. I have no known allergies and wasn’t sick beforehand. I’m obviously relieved that my hearing test was excellent, but I’m still really confused because the sensation feels very real and sometimes makes me dizzy/disoriented.

Has anyone experienced sudden/intermittent ear fullness or a “plugged” sensation with a completely normal hearing test and normal ear examination? What ended up being the cause for you?

I’m especially interested in experiences involving TMJ, migraine/vestibular migraine, inner-ear issues, or anything else that could cause this kind of sensation without measurable hearing loss.
I’m not looking for a diagnosis, just trying to understand what possibilities I should ask my ENT about while I wait for the imaging. I have bad anxiety and I have been a mess while waiting for this to clear up.

Little bit of a late post, but it's month 9, all of this from an upper respiratory infection.

The only notable thing here is I had a large drop in the full feeling for two minutes at one point in the last month, and a lot of fluctuations which seem to have settled

This is miserable.

Holy fuck the most frustrating part is like, logically, you know the offender, whatever virus, is long gone that caused this, and yet because the day-to-day progress of healing is invisible, and not at all linear, your mind thinks its permanent and starts chalking up a million other possible causes

That's all I got

Thanks

I have been noticing symptoms I cannot differeninate from TMJD vs ETD

ear fullness

ear pain

fluid feeling in ear(watery/fluid feeling)

shooting pain that feels going up to skull/brain

tragus pain (near front of ear lope)

mostly felt on left ear not so much right.

I do have TMJD prior dx since 2020 but currently only have pain just around ear

I have to wait till freeking Oct to see an ENT doc in my area

I have been using Nasacort (steroid spray) and taking PRN Motrin for relief but hasn't helped much.

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!

Firstly, I'm an Organist so I'm fully aware that this could sadly be hearing loss.

Sorry if this is a mess, I'm just trying to collect my thoughts.

I tend to get pretty heavy allergies that always make my tubes feel clogged so I'm hoping it is ETD. A few years ago I really began to notice a persistent feeling of fullness that never *really* went away after I had a big cold. It has times where it is minimized and others where it is very noticeable. Basically most times it feels like I have to pop my ears due to increase of altitude. I can yawn and pop them but that does nothing. It is mostly a fullness feeling behind the lower lobe. I have Tinnitus (I'm aware this could be because I play a very loud instrument but my friends who also play loudly say they don't have it). About a year ago I went and had custom fit ear plugs made for when I practice, I tend to not wear them as it is a burden to put them in, take them out, and clean them etc. Sometimes I will lightly stuff rolled up tissue paper in my ears instead, not very far or violently, just enough to lightly seal them. Whenever I take out the ear plugs or the tissue paper after an amount of time wearing them, I feel like I can hear in 4k again, the "seal" feels opened. Of course this only lasts for maybe 5-10 mins before they go back to how they were. I'm hopeful this is not hearing loss as I'd assume I wouldn't hear better for a few mins after releasing pressure.

so, a few things I think this could be:

1. ETD

2. A buildup of excess ear wax

3. A fluid buildup or possible untreated hearing infection that has gone on a year or so.

4. Hearing loss (hopefully not)

I've finally had enough and will hopefully go to an urgent care on Monday and hopefully they will refer me to an ENT.

Would love to hear some of your thoughts, Thanks!

Hello guys, i just kinda wanna share my story and hear if someone has the same expiration 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 think it might be ETD from the reading i have made before. 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!