Ongoing tinnitus

I'm 32, male. A year ago for no apparent reason my right ear all of a sudden felt like it was "full". This was accompanied by tinnitus. I went to the doctor and he saw fluid. He gave me a shot of steroids and sent me home instructing me to get a decongestant at the pharmacy. I did.

Several weeks later the fullness and tinnitus were persistent. We went back and forth for 2 months. The fluid finally drained but the tinnitus and fullness were still there. He sent me to an ENT who said there was nothing obvious, the ear looked clean. He did a test on my hearing and concluded I had diminished hearing in my right ear but could not solve the tinnitus or fullness problem.

For the previous year the tinnitus has not gone away. There have been time periods where it would diminish or completely vanish for a while but it has always returned. Recently it has returned in full force.

Today (a little over a year later) the same thing happened to my left ear. I was sitting here at the computer and all of a sudden my left ear feels like it is full and I have tinnitus in both ears now, a ringing sound of different pitches in both ears.

I do not listen to loud music (not really much music at all) and the loudest noise I'm subjected to on a routine basis is the typing of a keyboard.

Over the past few years I started suffering headaches as well. I never had headaches before in my life until these recent years and sometimes they can be quite sever. I don't know if this is related.

I do have TMJ in my right jaw and my mother-in-law suggested this was the cause of the tinnitus. I don't see how this could spontaneously case my other ear to have tinnitus as well though.

Any help is appreciated!

[Brian459]

I was just diagnosed with TMJ myself and your symptoms certainly seem to fit.  I never had any jaw pain, just an occasional clicking sound, now I have the full ears and the ringing myself.  So symptoms can arise quite suddenly.  How has your treatment been going?
I would have your TMJ doctor investigate.
Hope you get to the bottom of it and start feeling better soon.