Perforated eardrum with constant ringing, is this normal?

Posted , 10 users are following.

I fell onto a toy 3 weeks ago and perforated my eardrum. It started to bleed so I went to the ER and was given neomycin/Polymyxin B otic suspension drops. I used them one time (3 drops) and then read they shouldn't be used with a perforation so I stopped. A day later my ears started ringing, this also coincided with the day the blood dried.

Is it normal to have high-pitched ringing from a perforation or from a scab/dried blood on the eardrum? Or should I be worried that the eardrops have caused damage to my inner ear? I saw an ENT who said not to worry about the drops but it is so hard not to after the terrifying things I've read. He confirmed dried blood on my eardrum. Hearing test was good.

If ringing is from the perforation or the scab, how long should it take to improve? Ringing is no matter after 3 weeks.

Also, since my ear was bleeding when I used the drops, is there risk of toxicity from the neomycin entering my bloodstream?

Thanks!

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32 Replies

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  • Posted

    Yes it is normal

    Both my ear drums burst within hours of each other and I lost my hearing in both, I was scared witless that within a day of losing hearing I had constant music in my left and high pitch tone in right. I googled and it's the brain, it needs to hear sound and when it doesn't it makes its own noises. As soon as hearing started to come back the music stopped and right ear still gets some tinnitus but that was my most painful. Mine happened about 10 weeks ago and my right ear still hurts randomly

    • Posted

      I'm glad you're feeling better! How long until your hearing started to come back?

      The puzzling thing with mine is that my hearing seems completely fine. When it first happened things seemed just a bit muffled but it correctly very quickly and my hearing test was perfect. But I still have this high-pitched ringing in my head!

  • Posted

    Yes. Be very patient and be sure it heals properly by following up with the ent.they have drops made for people with ear tubes so im sure thats what they gave you.
    • Posted

      Thanks! The ER actually gave me the ones you're not supposed to use with tubes. My ENT agreed they wouldn't have used them in my case but also told me not to worry since I only used them once (but have read of people suffering damage from one dose! Yikes). He says it's theoretically possible to cause damage but very rare and told me how those drops were all they had for a long time and they used them with perforations before the newer drops were available. I still can't stop worrying since the ringing didn't start until after I used the drops.

  • Posted

    Hello Stephanie,

    Iam not sure whether you will be notified about this reply as it's been almost 9 months. I would like to know how is your condition now.Ringing stopped? I caught up in a similar situation. If you came to see this message, please do leave a reply.

    Ajith

  • Posted

    Hi im nancy i perforated my ear drum 2 weeks ago while travelling for work. I had a bad ear infection that started externa and eventually became media that ruptured my ear drum. Im so scared right now I cant hear well or at least i hear a lot of things but i can so disoriented and confused i cant stand it. What process did you go through while healing? Just want to know if its normal. Appreciate your help

  • Posted

    Hey Staphani,

    It would be lovely to hear back from you!

    I recently injured my right eardrum and it caused a perforation. As soon as I got hit the ringing started and was really loud. After a lot of doctors and hospitals around 20% of my eardrum had blown off. There was blood but very little it was not discharged either and dried in the ear(maybe it went back in?). Its been three weeks and now I got the flu, there is a different kind of ringing in my left ear but thats likely from a blocked sinuses. My right ear sounds like a static tv noise but sometimes sounds like a high frequency noise.

    I wanted to know, did you tinnitus go away? Did you get so used to it that you hardly hear it anymore? How long did it take?

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