Do you think this ear problem was handled correctly?

Asked by Aster (20023

) October 8th, 2010

An old friend, 66, developed ringing in her ears
(tinnitus) a couple months ago. She had no pain or head injuries. Her ears beat in rhythm with her heartbeat which makes me think it is from her cholesterol meds. She felt fine, went to seee an ENT, and he suddenly put a hose up her nose which went down into her throat. She said it Really hurt and she had a sore throat (and the tinnitus continues) for 2 days like he scratched her throat with the hose. Is this the usual “treatment?” She said he did nothing that made it better and said nothing about what caused it or how to treat it. She has never gone to a rock concert. I had told her that, far as I know, there’s no treatment and it’s often permanent.

tinnitus

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2 Answers

It’s not unusual for an ENT to look at your nose and throat as well as ears and yes it can give you a sore throat (often they will numb you with a bit of topical lidocaine first I find that more unpleasant). They do this because the ears nose and throat are all closely linked and if something is “wrong” with one it is worth checking the others out.

Having said that the doc should have given your friend some idea as to what he thought the problem was and what could be done about it. Tinnitus is not a disease it’s a symptom. Some times it is an indication that the hearing has been damaged but there are other causes. If it could be the medications causing it (and it is a side effect of some meds) then it would be worth discussing with doc about stopping or changing meds about to see if it improves. If the current ENT isn’t interested then it’s probably worth finding another doc who is.

Lightlyseared (34624

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