Dear Dr. Roach: For the past eight months, I have had a twitch in the inside of my right ear. I can hear it twitching, and I can feel it. It seems to get worse when I talk on the phone (it鈥檚 my phone ear), but sometimes I wake up with it twitching. I have gone to my general practitioner for help. He referred me to an ear specialist. They did a hearing test, which I passed with flying colours. Other than that, they didn鈥檛 have any solution to my problem. It is very bothersome and seems to be getting worse. I think it may be stress-related, but I don鈥檛 know what to do to make it stop. Can you help me?
It feels like when your eye twitches, only it鈥檚 inside my ear. I could liken the movement to a snapping of fingers. It鈥檚 more a vibration than a crunch. I do hear a sound when it happens, similar to when you get water plugging up your ear. So it plugs/unplugs with each twitch.
P.C.
This sounds like a spasm of one of the muscles that controls the tension of the eardrum, the tensor tympani and stapedius muscles. These muscles protect our ears, to some extent, from loud noises. Just like you can have a spasm or twitch in your eye muscles 鈥� or indeed any muscle 鈥� these muscles cause a unique sound sensation in the ear when they repeatedly twitch with high frequency. The plugging/unplugging sensation is likely the Eustachian tube, which controls the pressure in the ear, opening and closing.
The bad news is that I don鈥檛 know of anything to make it stop. The good news is that it won鈥檛 affect your hearing. Very rarely, it can be a sign of a nerve or muscle disease, but it is likely a normal phenomenon that many people have but few notice and articulate it as well as you have.
听
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