Are you hearing crackling in your ear? A condition known as tinnitus can bring about many different noises in your ears including whooshing, buzzing, ringing, and crackling. Here is what you should know.
Ever hear crackling, buzzing, or thumping noises that seem to come out of nowhere? If you use hearing aids, it can mean that they need to be adjusted or aren’t properly fitted. For everybody else, tinnitus might be the answer.
There’s much more to the ear than what you see on the outside. Here are some of the more common sounds you may hear inside your ears, and what they may reveal is going on.
What’s Causing The Snap, Crackle, And Pop in My Ear?
It’s not Rice Krispies that’s for certain. It isn’t unusual to hear a popping or crackling sound when the pressure in your ear changes. This can be because you had a change in altitude, went underwater, or simply yawned. These sounds are caused by a small part of your ear called the eustachian tube. The crackling is caused by mucus-lined passageways opening up, permitting air and fluid to move and equalize the pressure in your ears.
It’s an automatic process, but in some cases, like if you’re dealing with congestion from allergies, a cold, or an ear infection, your eustachian tubes can literally get clogged up from an excess of mucus in your system (don’t forget, that there’s a connection between your ears, throat, and nose). Medical assistance, like surgery, is sometimes called for in extreme cases where nothing else has helped clear the blockage.
What Does it Mean When I Hear Vibrations in My Ear?
Sometimes tinnitus manifests as a vibration in the ears. Tinnitus is the technical name for a condition that causes people to hear sounds that have no outside cause, such as vibrations, inside of the ear. Most individuals will refer to it as a ringing in the ears and it manifests across the spectrum, from hardly there to debilitating.
What Should I do About Noises in my Ear
If you have hearing aids, once again, checking those is the first step. You may hear these kinds of sounds for a number of reasons: your batteries are running low, the hearing aids aren’t properly positioned in your ears, the volume is too high, or your hair is rubbing up against it. But if you don’t have hearing aids and you’re hearing this kind of noise, it may also be due to accumulated earwax.
Dull hearing, irritated ears, and ear infections can frequently be caused by excessive earwax but how could it be responsible for tinnitus noises? The ringing or buzzing can be caused by earwax touching your eardrum and impeding its function. The good news is, earwax problems are easily fixed.
Reach out to us if you have odd sounds in your ears. We can examine your hearing aid to make sure it’s working properly.