You can't play a drum underwater,
I don't care what The Little Mermaid taught us.
The part of the ear responsible for hearing and balance is amazingly complex and small, which is a combination of adjectives I generally try to avoid as I've always been more of a blunt instrument kind of guy, as is usually the case in Texas.
But I get the ear drum. If you've played the drums or have been unlucky enough to have children or neighbors who do, you know that the reason they work is the very little amount of vibration of the drum. Your tympanic membrane (a.k.a. Ear drum) works in basically the same way, the only difference being that it transmits those vibrations from the outside world into signals to your brain.
There are a lot of points there that can be interfered with so let's talk about a few from the outside in:
- Anything that prevents the flow of air from going in or out of the ear. The most common is earwax but I've seen and heard of all manner of things in there. Not everybody's ear canal is the same so some people are just more likely to get buildup in there if the canal is narrower or has more bends and twists. So the first lesson is, try not to stick anything in your ear.
I know a lot of you are Q-tip devotees. Stop it. Read the side of the qtip box - it says not to stick them in your ear. Here's a little piece about why you definitely shouldn't put Q-tips in your ears.
Here is some more information for you about earwax blockage and what you can do for it at home. I know this still won't be enough to deter the most vigilant Q-tippers, but at least I've tried.
- Think about what happens when you go underwater. Water goes into your ear canal and pushes up against your ear drum. The deeper you go, the more pressure there is and the more that pushes on your eardrum. When that's happening or when you have any fluid stuck next to your ear drum, be it outside in the ear canal or inside the inner ear, the drum cannot vibrate the way it is used to and so sound does not transmit as well.
No part of your body can exist without some pathway to the outside world and the same is true of your inner ear so there is the Eustachian tube that leads from the back of your nose to your inner ear to allow air and fluid to flow freely. You can imagine then that it is very common for mucus from the nose to move backwards into the inner ear. The bad part is when that tube, which is very thin, gets blocked up.
What can block up the tube? Well one thing is pressure from the sinuses pinching the tube in the middle as you may have had happen when you go up to or come down from altitude (airplanes and Tahoe are the most common ones) and sometimes from bad sinus infections. The other time it can happen is thick mucus blocking things up as can happen with colds and sinus irritation and allergies. When you take a big sniff, sometimes that can force mucus up the tube the wrong way and it gets stuck there. Blowing your nose can sometimes do the same thing.
The treatment for fluid inside the inner ear is generally just time. Decongestants can help if your nose is severely blocked and a nasal steroid spray (flonase or nasacort are the over-the-counter versions) can help reduce inflammation in and around the Eustachian tube to help with the drainage but sometimes it can take weeks for all the fluid to drain out because it happens so slowly. Rarely, an ENT will put in tubes through the ear drum to help it drain out as a last resort.
When that fluid sits around and isn't able to drain, then it is prone to getting infected. It is much more common for kids to get true ear infections than adults because the angle of the Eustachian tube changing as our heads lengthen out to help facilitate drainage so generally most adults will not need antibiotics when they get fluid in their ears.
Here is some more information for you about eustachian tube dysfunction and how you can help it get better at home.