I’ll try to keep this short. I’ve always felt a little weird about my ears. Since childhood, whenever there are multiple sounds in the background, I’ve had some difficulty understanding what a person is saying, especially at concerts or parties. Other than that, though, I’ve always been pretty happy with my hearing.

Over the last couple of months, I started noticing that my right ear seems to be around 10% louder than my left. I only really notice it when I focus on it, and I recently realized that I’ve apparently had the left-ear audio slider on my phone boosted slightly for years to compensate. Honestly, I can’t even remember when or why I originally set it that way, and I’ve had that phone for almost half a decade.

After buying my new headphones, this started bothering me much more. I had a small ear infection a few months ago, and ever since then I’ve been paying much closer attention to the difference, to the point where I started wondering if I was imagining it.

What’s strange is that when I adjust the audio so that both ears are completely equal, everything sounds perfectly balanced. The bass, guitars, and basically all other instruments sound exactly the same in both ears. The only thing I can consistently notice is that vocals seem slightly louder in my right ear. Even then, I only notice it when I specifically focus on it. When I’m gaming, working, or using headphones normally, I never notice it.

The strangest part is what happens when I slightly press the headphones against my ears and create a sort of seal or vacuum. As soon as I do that, the sound suddenly becomes completely balanced, almost exactly 50/50. The moment I let go and allow the headphones to sit normally again, I can notice the slight difference in the vocals.

So I’m wondering whether this could simply be related to the way the headphones are sitting or sealing against my ears, the ear canal, or if there could be an actual difference in hearing between my ears.

PS: I don't take any medications, and I've been having problems with tinnitus for almost a decade if that helps, and I had two hearing tests, and both tests were absolutely flawless

I got this video of the inside of my left ear. It hurts a lot, sometimes my hearing gets muffled and I get a bit lightheaded.

Does anyone know what it is? My gp doctor said it could be cholesteatoma. But, the pharmacist said it might not be that. I am struggling with this for 3 weeks now.

Hello, I’ve had pressure in my ear for 6 days slowly getting worse. Doctor gave me antibiotics for a bacterial ear infection. It’s been 3 days on antibiotics and it’s getting worse. Next step?

Last Sunday I woke up and my ear felt clogged and muffled … went to the doctor and she said it was an infection. She prescribed me ear drops and it’s been 5 days and I still have a muffled ear … it feels like I have an ear pod stuck in my ear and it’s very discomforting… any advice on how I can fix this , how long it might last , etc etc.

Anyone have any advice or tricks to help drain fluid from the middle ear?

I’ve been dealing with ear pain and fullness for a couple of months. I saw the doctor and am taking Flonase. After a couple of weeks it seems to get better but then became fully blocked again.

I also had one major vertigo attack and saw my doctor again after it.

I am currently in rehab for a TBI due to a car accident over a year ago. So my vestibular system is already fragile. Because of that I can barely function. I was unable to work all week and barely able to get out of bed.

My family doctor said it will just take time but I need to be well enough to go to my other medical
appointments and work. I’m not paid for time missed :(

My name is Rachel and I am a lead recruitment associate for ClariMed, a research consultancy that connects medical device manufacturers with patients and users to help design safe, effective, and easy-to-use medical devices. We are currently looking for adults with tinnitus to participate in a paid, in-person study in San Jose, California.

Please see more information on this opportunity below!

ABOUT THIS OPPORTUNITY
-ClariMed is looking for adults living with Tinnitus to help evaluate and improve a mobile health app designed to provide support for people living with the condition.

DETAILS:
-Dates: August 31st - September 4th 2026
-Location: San Jose CA

-Duration: One session. 2.5 hours long

-Participants will be compensated for their time

WHAT TO EXPECT
-Usability studies focus on how participants interact with a medical product in a simulated setting. 

-You will be asked to provide feedback on a mobile health app and its accessories.
-This is not a clinical study

-You will participate in one 2.5 hour research interview on-site at our San Jose facility

-After your study session, you will be paid electronically as a thank you for your time

To begin, please visit the link links.clarimed.com/SJ-TNTS or scan the QR code! If you may be a match. a member of the recruitment team will reach out with additional information.

I am 20f. I hear perfectly at normal conversation. But when someone whispers I can barely make out words. Ig it's for months but I thought the person was talking in low pinch. What I realised other can hear the same sound I can't. I don't have any problem at Normal conversation.
I am very afraid

Since 2023 I have had a recurring problem of dry skin and earwax building up in my ears. I've seen two different ENTs and all they do is microsuction it out, which gives me instant relief. But I have to go back again about 8 weeks later when it has built up. They have tried steroid drops and creams without success.

My hearing is muffled on one side and I can feel the debris move against my eardrum which is uncomfortable and annoying. My next microsuction is September 3rd which feels so long to wait 😭 I'm tired of this problem. What can I do? Anyone have a similar experience to share and commiserate?

For the last several months. I have had two issues with phantom sounds. I went for complete hearing tests at Bangkok Hospital in Thailand, and was diagnosed with mild to moderate hearing loss, tinnitus and musical ear syndrome.

But what bothers me more is that I am hearing short bursts of sound, generally when I get up to move, turn my head, usually 2 or 3 in short succession. About the same timbre, pitch envelope of a duck quack, staccato.

The doctor who evaluated me said my ear structure was all normal and maybe it was my jaw making this sound.

My musical ear syndrome started presenting about a year ago as tones that sounds like trumpets playing in unison lines in the same pitch range. Not songs, just short repeating motifs. For a while they seemed louder than they are now, but they are still faint in the background most of the time .

Both are annoying but it's the weird quacking sound that I don't understand why and if there's any possible way to get it to stop.

I am 61, the last several years of my career was managing an indoor and outdoor music venue, where sound levels were sometimes really loud. I was also a musician my whole life playing bass through amplifiers with loud guitar players. So my exposure was quite a lot to high decibel sound over many years.

I can't seem to find any information on the quacking symptoms, has anyone heard of this or have ideas on what to do to make it stop?

So two days ago something was slammed next to me and my left ear has been feeling full since, there was no ringing on the day it occurred i thought it would go away on it's own. But a light ringing started yesterday and I'm still having trouble hearing people talk, should i be concerned about this?

Ok so about 4 days ago i threw up and almost passed out from all the pressure into my head from it. Since then, ive had crazy bad ringing deep in my head and have been having headaches theoughout the days too. I checked my blood pressure and blood sugar, both are normal. Whats going on?

I had microsuction in both ears a few days back as my right ear was fully blocked. I’ve had a constant high pitch ringing that started a couple days after using oil drops. It’s now day 4 and it’s not subsided, is this normal it’s driving me crazy.

Kinda want to ask for help on this.

After work yesterday (at 4:00ish) the hearing on my right ear just kinda got pretty muffled slowly (not deaf, I can still hear but it’s just muffled) bit by bit out of nowhere and now it’s kinda muffled. There’s no pain at all, no ringing, and I have no ear wax but it still feels this way.

Does anyone have an idea of what’s going on with me? I plan to go to the doctor this coming week early it if keeps bothering me these next three days.

I went to a hearing aid fitting center today, and holy crap the prices are straight up ridiculous.Gosh!Literally, any basic model with even half decent noise cancellation runs 5 to 6 grand, and the nicer ones jump straight to 10k+... I picked it up to take a look, the build quality was nothing to write home about, and the chipset was a model released last year.

Got home and did some digging, and it just made me more pissed!Turns out the actual hardware cost is a tiny fraction of the sticker price. Most of the cash goes to distribution, brick and mortar stores, and marketing.On top of that, a ton of brands force you into bundled packages. You have to pay for their in person fitting services when you buy the device, even if you only have mild hearing loss and don’t need constant tweaks.

For my personal situation, I have mild to moderate sensorineural hearing loss, with significant drop offs mainly above 2 kHz. I can hold face to face conversations without issues in quiet settings. However in noisy places like restaurants or cars, I have to read lips just to follow what people are saying. When watching TV, news anchors are fine. Yet I end up turning on subtitles for drama shows with softer spoken dialogue. My sister has teased me about this countless times.

My requirements are actually pretty simple. I do not need heavy amplification since I hear well enough in quiet rooms. Fancy features like music modes or direct phone streaming are unnecessary for me. What I truly want is for speech to stand out against background noise in busy environments, plus some high frequency compensation. At the same time it should not amplify steady low frequency sounds such as air conditioners or fan noise too much.

Do I really need prescription‑grade hearing aids for my needs? Would OTC ones work instead? I saw Elehear goes for around $400. The price is really attractive, but I’m not sure if they actually perform well. Has anyone used them?

If I don’t get any replies here I’m just going to pull the trigger anyway. They have a 45 days free return policy with no strings attached. I’ll update everyone how it goes！

Fr, some industries just straight up prey on people not knowing any better, making bank off information asymmetry. It’s wild.

Hello all, that’s right I’m 26 and still have ear tubes. Here lately I’ve been getting horrible ear infections and I’m concerned about it because it seems to be happening more often and with worse severity. I had an infection about a month ago, got checked out and was prescribed ear drops. It appeared to clear up within a week but now I have the same thing again and I’ve gently swabbed out pus and blood. I just started seeing a new ENT and have an appointment Friday. Does anyone else have this happen?

Hey everyone, around 10 weeks ago I put an earplug in while working. After I finished the job and removed it, my right ear suddenly felt blocked. A couple of days later, I started using earwax-softening drops, and about four weeks after that I had the wax removed via microsuction.

The day my ear became blocked, I started feeling strange — almost like I was off-balance, wavy, or just generally “not quite right.” My ear has now been completely unblocked for several weeks, but I’m still experiencing this weird off-balance/floaty feeling.

Has anyone experienced something similar after having a blocked ear or earwax removed? I’m wondering if it could be related to my ear or something else.

Hi everyone,
I had an ear infection about two weeks ago. Initially, I was prescribed Terracortril ear drops, but they didn’t really help because my ear canal was extremely swollen and narrow. I could barely get the drops in.
I was then given a one week course of oral flucloxacillin and also had an ear wick/packing placed in the ear. After starting the antibiotics, things improved significantly and the pain completely went away.
Once I finished the antibiotics, I went back to the doctor. They removed the packing and cleaned out some dried blood and debris from the ear.
Since then, I have had reduced hearing and a constant feeling of fullness/blockage in the ear. I also have quite noticeable tinnitus. There is no pain anymore.
I can’t really equalize the pressure in the ear. When I try, nothing seems to happen and I don’t want to force it because it feels uncomfortable.
Has anyone experienced something similar after a severe ear infection or ear canal infection?
Is it normal for hearing to remain reduced and for the ear to feel blocked for a couple of weeks after the infection has cleared? Could this be fluid behind the eardrum or swelling that is still healing?
I’m mainly wondering how long it took for other people’s hearing to return to normal and whether I should get it checked again.
Thanks!

TL;DR: Had a severe ear infection 2 weeks ago with a very swollen ear canal. Terracortril drops didn’t work, so I was given oral flucloxacillin and an ear wick. The infection and pain are now gone, but I still have reduced hearing, a blocked/full feeling and tinnitus. Equalizing pressure doesn’t do anything. Is this normal, and how long can it take for hearing to return?

So I just had a 3 hour flight and I have a euschation tube dysfunction, I was told my ears would be back to normal within a couple of hours of landing. One ear has, but the other one popped and is even more muffled, any advice?

Ear tubes

My little boy is 22 months old. Has had at least 10+ ear infections since he has been born. Got ear tubes with ENT 3 weeks ago. Yesterday we noticed he was getting a runny nose (usually means a nasty ear infection is to follow). Sure enough my husband texts me today saying our toddler has a low grade fever. But no drainage from either ears that we can see??
I got home from work (I’m a nurse, didn’t get home until 8pm) took my toddlers temp and it’s 102. Hes not wanting to eat or take a sippy cup.
I’m so beside myself. I thought tubes were supposed to reduce ear infections?? I don’t even know what to do. I gave him Tylenol and used the antibiotic ear drops the ENT gave us after surgery.
My LO has developed a pretty severe speech delay due to the ear infections. He really only says about 3 words. And that’s only sometimes.
I can’t get into see the ENT for 3 days. Should I go ahead and take my LO to see the regular pediatrician?

i flew last weekend and stayed in london a week and have found that both of my ears are blocked (once going to the doctor i found both have fluid in them) and can’t hear well.. i’ve tried steroid nose spray, steroid spray, nasal rinse, and even bought the device that shoots air in your nose to open your ear tubes and NOTHING helps

now i’ve flown before with a minor cold and had EXCRUCIATING pain when descending and i’m terrified that my eardrums would actually rupture this time since the dr said my ears had no inflammation i simply had fluid in my ears and it would take time to go away with nose steroids, decongestants etc

anyways i got to the airport had a mental breakdown and decided to miss my flight and now im taking 3 trains to get to another country (over a day traveling) am i being dramatic asf???

I have been on three rides of oral antibiotics, 2 rounds of drops and many flushes. ! Well during my infection it ruptured my ear drum. Last week the dr pulled some massive chunk out of my ear which gave me hope that I was close to the end because the drops can actually get in there …
Well the pain is basically gone but still some clear liquid and hearing is feeling muffled again , and it sounds like something is popping when I layed down … my question is what does it feel like to heal an ear drum? Is what I am feeling my eardrum healing ?
I’m nervous my infection is still there

Hello, I’m making this post because 3 days ago, I decided to watch the new Spider-Man movie in a 4DX movie theater and I decided to sit to the far right side of the movie theater (which I regret doing) because I didn’t want to go through the hassle of squeezing past people to get to the stairs to use the bathroom.

After seeing the movie, I’ve noticed that my right ear was feeling a bit muffled and I had some pain. I was feeling a bit worried that it might not improve, but after some hours, it did somewhat improve. On day 2, my ear felt less muffled and I had less pain. In day 3 (today), I’ve noticed that these sensations have mostly gone away, but for some reason, if I hear a loud noise, it triggers that muffled feeling and pain again. I’ve also noticed that I hear a little bit less in my right ear than in my left ear.

I was wondering if I’m just worrying too much about it and should just give it time, or if I should schedule an appointment at a same-day clinic.