ENT :: Muffled Hearing And Clicking In One Ear

I am frustrated and hope someone can help. I am a male in my early 50's and I am very healthy. I have never had any problems with my hearing but now my right ear is clogged and there is a clicking sound when swallowing, drinking, etc. This is a result of head trauma.

In late June 2013, 9 months ago, I did something very stupid and have regretted it ever since. I was using a Hi Lift jack, that is normally used for 4x4 trucks, etc., to jack a trailer up. I was stupid and leaned over the jack to look at something on the trailer. The leaning over meant I leaned between the jack handle and the lifting part of the jack, and I was not holding the handle. Just at that exact moment the handle sprung free and slammed back up right, hitting me squarely on the left side of my head. I wanted to pass out but did not. However, it hurt like heck and for the next 12 - 24 hours I could barely talk and eating was out of the question. My jaw and head hurt so bad. And, after this I noticed my right ear was plugged and clicked when swallowing, drinking, and so on.

I thought it would eventually go away as I was sure I had some swelling, etc from the jack handle hitting me but it has not. I finally went to my family doctor and he diagnosed me with TMJ and sent me to a doctor specializing in craniofacial issues and TMJ. He said my right side of my face hurting more than the left side that actually took the brunt of the jack handle force was correct because everything got shoved to the right. I started wearing a lower mouth piece in early Dec 2013, approx. 5 months after the injury. He stated my jaw was dislocated slightly and the mouth piece should eventually fix it and end the muffled sound and clicking. Well, here it is almost 4 months later and there has been zero change. He did add a water filled additional support for me to wear at night to see if lifting the mouthpiece higher will help. I believe the idea is for the jaw to be able to relax to allow any residual swelling to decrease without any tension on the jaw and muscles.

I was thinking if the mouth piece was to gradually reposition my jaw then perhaps I was out of alignment in that area and the chiropractor I had seen years ago could help. He could not find anything wrong and suggested I find a person who specializes in craniosacral massage therapy. I was unsure what that was exactly and after reading about it decided I would pass on it given it's reputation. I then thought that perhaps an ENT might be able to figure this out so I scheduled an appointment with one.

I saw him 3 days ago and he could not see anything wrong although he did think my right ear was interesting because he said the ear drum was not firmly attached to the bone, but that it was not a problem. He did refer me to a different office to a different ENT for a hearing test and a Eustachian tube function test and I had that done today.

The Eustachian tube function test showed that everything was fine and functioning properly.

The hearing test was fine and did not show any loss of hearing. What I did find interesting myself was that the test administrator's voice was louder I my muffled right ear although she said she had not changed the volume at all from when she was speaking into my left ear. Weird...muffled side was louder.

I go into another room and this different ENT doctor looked in my ears, throat, and nose, and said there was nothing wrong with me. I was asked if I had allergies of which I replied minimal issues since her colleague had done my septoplasty 6 - 7 years ago. In fact, most people I know are suffering with allergies the past few weeks and I had my biggest issues 5 days ago. I took two of those little red sudafed pills and 400 mg Ibuprofen and that took care of my allergy issue. This ENT prescribed me a steroid nose spray (nasonex?) spray and I was instructed to spray it straight back in my nose into the eustachian tube area and not straight up the nose like normal nose sprays.

This ENT doctor did not see anything interesting with the eardrum not being firmly attached to the bone, meaning she thought it was attached completely. So, there is a difference of opinion between ENT doctors. One sees something interesting, one does not.

This is so frustrating because there is something wrong with my right ear. When I plug my nose and blow like you do when you want to pop & clear your ears my left ear clears like normal but the right ear does not. It is plugged, it is muffled, and it clicks. There is no pain, and no discomfort, but it is irritating because it is not right. It should clear.

What is gong on with normal hearing, normal eustachian tube function, two ENTs look into my ear and do not see any infection, do not see any wax build up, nothing. They say everything is fine, even though it is not. They know of the injury to my head but cannot find anything wrong.

Another thing I did was back in December I was take 800mg of Ibuprofen twice per day, for a total of 1,600 mg, for probably two solid weeks, and that was after 2 days of taking hydrocodone. This was a result of a doctor doing an outpatient procedure on me, wait, did I say doctor? That is another story for another day but what I am getting at is since Ibuprofen helps with swelling I would have thought any swelling any place in my body would have been taken care with that high a dose for so long. But, there was no change in the muffled and clogged and clicking noise issue in my right ear.