Hearing Through Your Allergies

By Hearing Professionals

With warmer patterns across the country and heavy spring rains, plants have more potential to produce pollen into the air to trigger allergy symptoms. Some allergy sufferers will experience runny noses and itchy eyes, but others may feel pressure in the ear, a ringing sensation, or vertigo (dizziness).

When the immune system reacts to an allergen, it produces antibodies that release histamine. This is what is responsible for your sneezing, itchy nose and congestion. The histamine causes an increased amount of mucus production as well, which can create problems in your ears. In particular, the Eustachian tube, which is a drainage passage for the middle ear, can become clogged. This clogged impression can cause patients to feel a sense of fullness or pressure in the ears, as well as a loss in their hearing.

Types Of Hearing Issues

Fullness During allergy season, there can be excess fluid in the ear that creates a pressured or clogged feeling, which can impact your ability to hear correctly. This is because the fluid presses against the eardrum to cause discomfort.

Conductive hearing loss Con-ductive hearing loss is curable, but it makes it temporarily difficult to hear faint noises and often creates a reduced sound level. This type of hearing loss occurs when sound waves cannot properly flow through the ear and into the tiny bones of the middle ear. Having excess fluid or ear wax plays a major role in this type of hearing loss because sound cannot properly travel to the cochlea.

Allergies can also cause a fluctuating level of fluid in the ear, which can make you able to hear at some times while others can be difficult. Other common causes of conductive hearing loss include swimmer's ear, presence of a foreign body, or benign tumors.

Ear infections It should come as no surprise that with allergies come the risk of infections. As there is increased moisture in the ear from fluid, bacteria are able to thrive more easily and cause a middle ear infection. If you experience regular middle ear infections, there is a possibility it could lead to tinnitus or hearing loss.

Increased allergens can also clog the microphone ports in hearing aids. Make sure to maintain cleanliness of your device.

For people experiencing hearing loss or tinnitus during this season, it is likely that the symptoms will subside as allergy triggers dissipate. However, it is usually best to visit your audiologist to make sure that your issue does not need long-term treatment.