Eustachian Tube Dysfunction Cure

Anyone who is still suffering from ear problems should ask their doctor about superior canal dehiscence (sscd) which can be easily missed on your scans. it is a hole inside your ear bone which can cause all your symptoms. I just watched a show lastnight about a woman who suffered for eight months and saw ents who kept telling her to deal with it until her husband took her to another specialist who looked at her scans and figured out the problem. Had surgery and now she is all better. Might not be your problem but worth a try. Bring this up to your doctors !! Keep me updated and thanks again. I hope I recover soon and we all recover soon.

Hello - I would like to add my experience to the list.  I have not been diagnosed with ETD, but I am pretty sure I have it, or something similar.  I have been suffering intermittently since I was about 20, after a bad otitis media that wasn't diagnosed because the GP thought it wa psychological - my left eardrum perforated eventually, and it took six months of antibiotics and having my tonsils out to cure it.   I am now 56 - and this has led to many episodes of severe depression/anxiety.  I have fullness in both ears, the left being worse, and squelching/cracking noises mostly in the left ear.  I have constant post-nasal drip, but when the condition is at its worst, the mucus seems too thick to swallow, and becomes more liquified as I get better. I hear my voice louder inside my head, and when I eat the crunching is really annoying.  Sometimes the pressure in my ears is intolerable, it feels as if something is trying to crack my skull from the outside while a balloon is trying to blow itself up from the inside, if that makes sense.  I have a frightening sense of unreality with it, too.  When there is background noise my hearing feels muffled and I can't distinguish where voices are coming from.  When I travel I have balance problems - don't even know how to describe the sensation, but I can't bear going round corners in the car, and on the ferry or aeroplane the sensation is horrendous.  The episodes used to finish when I would feel lots of post-nasal drip and eventually it seemed that all the 'gunk' had drained down my throat.  I have mostly been told by ENTs 'your hearing's fine so there's no problem' because audiograms and typanometry are fine - my latest was apparently 'excellent'.  GPs in the past have variously told me I had glue ear, that my eardrum was retracted, that it was 'a bit red', or that there was nothing there.   A sinus x-ray last year (ordered by the dentist because I had had toothache which apparently wasn't originating in my teeth) showed sinusitis I think, and polyps in my sinuses - an ENT this year said she could not see any.  This year I have been suffering since Christmas - over that time the severity of symptoms has varied, and has recently got worse.  Last year,a GP in France gave me a 5-day course of oral steroids (Prednisolone) - to my amazement they worked.  After two days I noticed a difference, and after five my head had cleared.  I told the GP here in the UK, but he prescribed only Mometasone (Nasonex) nasal spray, which helps a bit but nowhere near enough - in fact I think only because it's liquid which does help the drainage a bit.  I take Pseudoephedrine decongestants, which also help a bit, but am pretty worried since they are now regarded as being somewhat dangerous. In any case, nothing I've taken does more than take the edge of the symptoms - except the Prednisolone, which I can't get here.  The worst thing for me is the anxiety and depression the condition brings, and the uncertainty of having no real diagnosis and hence no support.  Anyway, that's my story.  I shall be haunting these boards from time to time to see how you are all getting on, and I wish you all luck - this is a miserable condition which has blighted my life, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone.  

Hi All, feel's good to know that i'm not alone with this.

My situation started 8 months ago, during holidays and after lots of swimming.

In my i started  hearing a sound like a broken speaker, and then everytime that people talked or with music, it sounded distorted. Then my left ear got blocked, and from then i can only open by doing the mansalva manouver, but, as soon as i swallow, it blocks again, so and once it opens i do have the need to swallow a lot..

I haven't been diagnosed yet in any condition, i have seen 3 ENT's so far, couple of doctors, some accupunture guys, natural doctors etc.

Have done detox, change my diet.... not improving..

The only thing it has worked out a bit for me, was as someone mentioned, the prednisona, so far has been the best. I have tried even a nebulizer with steroids and nothing happened.

It has been 8 months doing the mansalva thing, and it's very annoying, as in my work, i can be doing that every minute.

I have been recommended by a great doctor to go with Dexamethasone for 3 weeks while also using a strong spray called Dexa-rhino Spray.

Has anyone used anything like this before?

 

Hi all,

Here's some advice from a lay person (and one from the states, no less).

After reading this entire posting and from my experience so far - which is that I have both TMJ and ETD - I think everyone should double check on the "popping" you are hearing. If it isn't super loud, popping in your ear is normal - that is how your ear clears the liquid inside. I find if I can't hear the light popping, that is when I am having the most discomfort, because my ear is not able to clear itself. If the popping is loud and sometimes painful and feels like your jaw is coming out of place, that is TMJ. I personally believe my TMJ is causing ear infections and ETD, but there is no proof of that. To top it all off, I also suffer from seasonal allergies, which seem to be getting worse and worse. Of course, the doctor told me the norm for that and for the ETD: take allergy meds daily, use nose spray (he recommended FloNase or Nasacort, whichever was cheaper - I went with Nasacort for that very reason although I honestly don't feel much relief from it). I'm going to start taking Claritin and Zyrtec (the generic from Costco), so hopefully that helps with the daily miserableness of not being able to breath and having a sore throat as if I have a cold... As for the TMJ and ETD, the following are what allow me some relief:

1. Night Gaurd for the TMJ is a must!! And everynight, cuz if I skip even just a couple of days, the pain flares up. Get a good one from your dentist. If you can't, you can try the generic ones from the grocery store, but those did not work so great for me... Also, I know it's very weird, and definitely not a long term fix because of the painful side effect, but while I was waiting for my night gaurd, I pushed my tongue between my teeth for cushion. Again, not great longterm, cuz I was basically chewing on my tongue and ended up using my cheeks as well, without even realizing I was doing it. Ouch!

2. Also, during the day and for the TMJ, I have to be very aware of what I am doing with my jaw - no clenching it or gritting my teeth. I have to try to stay very relaxed... which is very hard, because I don't even realize I'm doing it! Seriously, I was just doing it and had to force myself to relax. Crazy!

3. For the ETD... I'm still trying to figure out what works best for me. So far, when my ear starts to feel plugged or under water, I use a medicine I got from the doctor that cleans ear wax, then flush with water and an hr or less later, it feels clear... or much more clear. I guess this is a temporary fix, though, becuase I then wake up the next morning feeling plugged and muted again. I am going to keep looking for the cause because if I can figure that out, hopefully I can stop it from happenning.

Anyways, I am sorry, I know this post is about ETD, but with everyone complaining so much about popping and cracking and pain, I just want you all to consider the possibility that you have TMJ (which, again, I feel causes the ETD or is one major factor). I am hoping that getting control of the TMJ and the seasonal allergies will alleviate the

Recently, I found some sites and blogs stating that the correct way to administer nasal spray for the eustachian tubes (ETs) is to spray with the nozzle at a 90 degree angle to the face, instead of straight up the nostrils. This way the medicine goes directly to the site of the ETs. Does anyone comments on either or both of the methods? Also, any feedback on long-term use of corticosteroid sprays, specifically Flunisolide? I hesitate to use it long-term due to fear of side effects, such as polyps. I am finding that a primary cause of my ETD is due to something going on in the back of my neck. Cracking my neck gives temporary relief. Since the cracking/popping sound of muscles is due to gas being released, there is probably some sort of gas diffusion problem. I have read, in this discussion that others suffer from tension and pain in the neck. Does anyone find the neck area to be the primary source of the pressure?

  I hope everyone is doing well. I have not had any job offers in scienctific research, so I am ruthlessly studying for the GRE, especially quantitative, so that I can get into a good grad school and, hopefully, study the ET. I feel somewhat reluctant to take this path, since I somewhat feel that I am letting the disease decide my fate. My interest was primarily in neuroscience, although I do still plan to apply for programs in that area. Also, I am not sure how effective one can be in discovering a cure for something when they are so personally affected by it and may be blinded by some issues. Either way, I will periodically update this discussion. I wish I had more advice to give. What keeps me going the most is the realization that if I think about my ETD too much it probably will consume the majority of my life and hamper my progress. Doctors have told me to just not think about it. Having a BA-Psychology, I do respect the power of thoughts and mind over matter. Obviously, it is much easier said than done. Although, that is what I am finding works the best for my situation. From reading others' testimonies, I found that there are much more severe cases than mine and I wish those, among the others, become, at least, alleviated.

WISH DOCTORS WOULD FIGURE THIS OUT.

etd and tinnitus are not fun