How Long Does Tinnitus Remain When Having Hole In Eardrum?

Posted on Mon, 19 Jan 2015

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Mon, 19 Jan 2015 Answered on

Mon, 16 Feb 2015 Last reviewed on

Question : My 23-year old daughter recently was diagnosed with a large hole in her eardrum. After many weeks, the eardrum is showing signs of repairing itself, which is great. However, she is experiencing a lot of intermittent tinnitus, in the form of whooshing sounds, especially at night. Might that be related to the healing eardrum? How long might this tinnitus last? What could be done to get rid of the tinnitus?

Answered by Dr. Sumit Bhatti (25 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
The whoosing sounds are known as Tinnitus.

Detailed Answer:
Hi,

Thank you for your query.

1. The initial injury and the reasons for the eardrum perforation influence the healing of the ear drum.

2. Get her hearing checked by a PTA (Pure Tone Audiogram). This will reveal if her sensori-neural hearing is normal besides the conductive hearing loss expected with an eardrum perforation.

3. The whooshing sounds are known as Tinnitus. Tinnitus is usually heard in the presence of hearing loss, which she will have. Conductive Hearing Loss (CHL) will heal and the Tinnitus will decrease. However, if she has any Sensori-Neural Hearing Loss (SNHL), Tinnitus may be due to it and this requires immediate attention (do not wait).

4. Sometimes, as the size of the perforation decreases during healing, the patient may experience worsening of Tinnitus till it closes completely.

5. It would be great if you could upload a PTA and video-endoscopic images of the ear drums.

I hope that I have answered your query. If you have any more questions I will be available to answer them.

Regards.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar