What could give someone a feeling of water coming out of the ear without any actual fluid discharge?

Question

Hello doctor,

I get a feeling of water rushing out of my ear canal which is similar to when water drains out of your ear after spending a day at the pool. There is no fluid in my ear nor is it coming out . I usually use a q-tip or wiggle my finger around in my ear and the tickle goes away. I am not currently sick, and I know it is not a bug or fluid, so what can it be? Earwax maybe? Please help.

Answer 1

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

I went through your query and understood your concern. It is most probably due to the eustachian tube catarrh (excessive build-up of mucus in the ear). This is a common condition where the tube that connects the middle ear to the back of the nose, equalizing pressures inside the ear and outside and also draining the secretions from the middle ear, gets slightly edematous due to allergy, inflammation, or infection. Sometimes it can be even physiological to have such feelings during routine eustachian tube functioning. If the problem is recurrent and bothering you, I suggest you take a tablet of Claritin (Loratidine) once a day for three to four days and see improvement. If there is no improvement, I suggest you do a couple of audiological tests, pure tone audiometry, and tympanometry. I hope this was helpful. Thanks and regards.