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Thumping in right ear, only triggered by sound
This is a strange problem and difficult to explain so please bear with me here. This has been happening for almost 2 years now.
If both of my ears are completely exposed, 90% of the time I have no issues. Hearing is even on both ears. The other 10% of the time, certain midrange frequencies cause my right ear to thump along with the sound and usually only when they're pretty loud.
Now the main issue is that 100% of the time, if my right ear is partially covered for whatever reason (let's say I'm laying down on my side and part of it is covered, if I wear a hooded shirt over my head, or even if I put my hand over my right ear slightly), the thumping happens along with the sound. So let's say someone speaks a 4 syllable word, I'll get a thump with each syllable. Or if I'm hearing footsteps, each footstep causes a thump. This seems to happen along all frequencies (except maybe the very high ones). The weird thing is the thumping doesn't happen if I completely seal my LEFT ear. It'll only happen if my left ear is completely exposed and my right ear partially covered. It doesn't even have to be covered all the way. I can put my hand about 5 inches away from my ear and it'll trigger this problem.
I unfortunately can't afford to go to a ENT right now so I'm hoping someone has an idea about what's going on here. One thing probably worth mentioning is I've had acid reflux for 4 years. I actually went to an ENT because of pain all on my right side....my ear, throat, neck and head. He did an endoscopy but said he didn't see anything there to worry about, and thought acid reflux is causing my pain so he prescribed me some Ranitidine which I've been taking since then (just stopped a few months ago though). It did definitely help the ear pain when I began taking it but I did still have reflux episodes probably once a month throughout the 4 years. I'm thinking maybe this has caused some ear damage but I'm really not sure.
I appreciate any help I can get.
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The other two replies do not resemble my situation (anxiety or working out). Yours are very much like mine, though. Only when seated and watching TV - trying to relax! It is so distracting and persistent! It is my left ear (only), and I have to keep the volume down low to avoid the thumping in that ear with frequency of the noise, usually background music, with certain midrange frequencies causing my left ear to thump along with the sound. It stops when I sit up straight with my feet on the floor. Does that make sense to anyone? This has been happening for over a year. I have been to my PCP and have build-up in both ears. She irrigated them but no change in symptoms.
Hey iv messaged you as I’m suffering the same did u ever find the answer ? Thank you x
I just want to say in case this helps anyone, when I went to see an ENT regarding a thumping in my right ear triggered by specific sounds (mostly triggered by people with lower voices, especially certain men and it thumps along with them talking), she believes it's caused by the malleus/tensor tympani being triggered. She had explained to me that normally it triggers to help protect your eardrums from loud, damaging noise, however mine triggers even for noises that aren't even loud due to previous damage. As a kid, I sprayed canned air directly into my ear since I thought it was funny, it got really really cold, and I now believe some of the liquid from inside the can might have sprayed into my ear and was what caused the damage. I don't really have symptoms of TTS, so we settled on it being damaged at some point, though she said the only way to know for sure was to do surgery which was a no go for me. It's easy enough for me to plug my ear if it's really bothering me though I know that not everyone can do that, but hopefully this information helps some people.