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Can an ear infection cause Tinnitus?
Fans of the NBC sitcom The Office may remember one of Jim and Pam’s famous pranks, where they softly hummed the same note (but denied hearing anything themselves) until their co-worker Dwight decided he needed to make an appointment with an ear doctor. They called it “pretendinnitus,” based off of a very real ear problem: Tinnitus. In this blog post, we look at this annoying ear problem and its connection to ear infections.
What is Tinnitus?
Tinnitus involves a perception of noise in the ears. Most people describe what they hear as a ringing, but it can also manifest as hissing, humming, buzzing, or clicking. Tinnitus is a relatively common issue, affecting around 1 in 5 people.
The noise can be steady or intermittent, and it can also vary in intensity, ranging from slightly annoying to overwhelming, making it difficult to hear external sounds or concentrate. Most often Tinnitus is subjective, meaning only the person suffering from it can perceive the sound. Subjective Tinnitus is sometimes caused by problems with the auditory nerves or the interpretation of nerve signals in the brain. More commonly it is caused by outer, middle, or inner ear problems. Some people suffer from a stronger objective Tinnitus, however, where the sound is intense enough for a doctor to hear during examination. Objective Tinnitus can be caused by muscle contractions, blood vessel issues, or a bone condition in the middle ear.
Causes and severity of Tinnitus
Tinnitus is not a condition itself, rather a sign of some other underlying condition. We have explored some of the common causes in an earlier post. Most often Tinnitus comes from hearing loss due to age or prolonged exposure to loud noises: standing too close to the speakers at a concert with no ear plugs, operating heavy construction equipment (again, with no ear plugs), or working in/near other loud machinery (without…you know the drill). Tinnitus can accompany virtually every type of hearing loss, but it can also indicate a number of other underlying conditions, such as:
- ear wax buildup
- eardrum rupture
- medication side effects
- injury to the head or ear
- cardiovascular disease
- ear infections
Tinnitus may remain a relatively mild nuisance for most patients, however for some it can cause real damage to their quality of life. The persistent ringing can cause sleep problems and increase stress, which can then spiral into fatigue, memory problems, anxiety, and difficulty concentrating. The American Tinnitus Association notes that in some cases Tinnitus can be severe enough to impact a person’s everyday life, even leading to social isolation or an inability to work.
Ear infections and Tinnitus
An infection of the outer ear (aka otitis externa, aka swimmer’s ear) is typically caused by bacteria growth brought on by the presence of excess moisture in the ear or an abrasion to the lining of the ear canal. The excess moisture that causes swimmer’s ear can come from the pool, baths and showers, or the infection can even grow out of an aggressive cotton swab. This type of infection is much more common in adults.
A middle ear infection (otitis media) is caused by inflammation of the Eustachian tubes, which connect the middle ear to the back of the throat. Swollen Eustachian tubes can then block the passage, causing fluid to build up in the middle ear. This inflammation is typically caused by a virus, bacteria, or allergy. Blockage of the Eustachian tubes is more common in children because they are still developing. By adulthood the tubes are wider and sit more, so they drain more easily.
Infections of the outer and middle ear can both cause Tinnitus. Ear infections will often involve swelling or fluid that can cause enough of a blockage to damage the eardrum and bring on that annoying ringing (or buzzing or hissing).
Tinnitus can improve by identifying and treating the underlying condition. When it comes to ear infections as the culprit, treatment will usually consist of monitoring symptoms to determine if the infection becomes severe enough to warrant antibiotics. But most ear infections will clear up within a few days, and the Tinnitus along with them. Ear drops and over-the-counter pain medication may also be incorporated, and for an outer ear infection, treatment will also include a thorough cleaning.
The potential for developing Tinnitus highlights the importance of keeping an eye on ear infection symptoms. Most will clear up on their own, but as we’ve seen before, monitoring ear infections remains critical, in case yours becomes one of the rare cases that develops into something more serious. We saw that left untreated, ear infections can cause hearing loss, damage to the eardrum, or even more extensive harm if the infection spreads beyond the ear. Tinnitus might just be a helpful clue to flag infections that are not clearing up.
So rather than an annoyance, think of that ringing as a helpful warning system, listen to your ears, and check with your doctor to keep ear infections under control.
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A Personal Motivation for a Public Problem
Given that this is intended to be the first of many conversations, I’ll start by introducing myself. My name is Ryan Shelton. I am a problem solver, a maker, a husband, a father. I love food, coffee, beer, board games, a wide variety of music, traveling, and meeting new people. I am an amateur musician, amateur golfer, and amateur programmer, but I have achieved intermediate status in fort-building and wrestling with toddlers.
In 2011, I was at Texas A&M University in the process of convincing my dissertation advisor to let me schedule my dissertation defense, when my wife and I found out we were having our first child. This was, of course, joyous, exhilarating, and terrifying, as it was already a very busy time in our life. We cheered, and cried, and made plans to bring a child into the world. Jack was born in November. He was healthy and beautiful and looks just like me, a point of which I’m reminded every single day. When Jack was around two months old, he got his first ear infection. We didn’t know what was going on, we just knew that he screamed and cried all night. ALL night. The following weeks were a brutal awakening to parenthood that may have eclipsed the 23-hour labor he was kind enough to bestow upon us (and by us, I mean my wife…). We did not know the problem was an ear infection until we finally brought him into convenient care a couple of days later. The physician took a quick look at his ears with the otoscope and said he has a double ear infection. He gave us a prescription for amoxicillin and sent us home. The following 10 months was more of the same. Every few weeks he would get an ear infection and we would usually end up with a prescription for an antibiotic. All this, despite the fact that the 2011-2012 flu season was one of the mildest in recent memory. It was incredibly frustrating that the infections seem to come infrequent enough not to prompt referral to an ENT, but frequent enough that we spent a good portion of the year piling antibiotics into a very young child’s microbiome. I often wonder how Jack’s first year of life might have been different, had we access then to the technology I spent the next few years building.
Directly after a successful dissertation defense in Fall of 2012, I took a position with Stephen Boppart at the University of Illinois’ Beckman Institute and we moved to Illinois. I was leading a project developing new handheld imaging devices for seeing through human tissues. Steve had already begun to explore the idea of using the technology to see through the eardrum, and given my recent experiences with Jack, I pushed that application hard and with the passion of a frustrated parent. Over the next couple of years, we built prototypes and tested those prototypes in human clinical studies. We found we could indeed see what was behind the eardrum, without the need to cut the eardrum open. We immediately wanted to see this technology make an impact in other parents’ and children’s lives, so we began to explore commercialization of the technology. This resulted in the founding of PhotoniCare, alongside Steve Boppart and Ryan Nolan. PhotoniCare’s mission is to empower frontline health care providers with actionable information that enables them to provide better care, improve clinical outcomes of their patients, and work alongside their patients to achieve the best possible quality of life.
Consider this an invitation to join us in our mission and journey. We will use this blog to communicate our passion, struggles, successes, celebrations, and musings to anyone interested in traveling alongside us as we try to make the vision we have a reality. Please feel free to reach out to us on LinkedIn, Facebook, or our website.
In the meantime, we would love to hear your personal stories about ear infections in a comment!
Phone
866-411-EARS
Address
PhotoniCare Inc.
2800 Meridian Parkway, Suite 175
Durham, NC 27713