Ruptured Eardrum (Acutely Perforated Tympanic Membrane)

A ruptured eardrum means there’s a hole or tear in your eardrum. A ruptured eardrum may affect your hearing and sense of balance. Ruptured eardrums often heal without treatment. Sometimes, though, you may need surgery to repair your damaged eardrum. Protecting your ears is the best way to prevent ruptured eardrums.

What is a ruptured eardrum? Your eardrum is a flexible membrane that separates your outer ear from your middle ear. You can rupture your eardrum if you have a severe middle ear infection or you injure or damage your eardrum. A ruptured eardrum may affect your hearing and sense of balance. Ruptured eardrums often heal without treatment. Sometimes, however, you may need surgery to repair your damaged eardrum. Protecting your ears is the best way to prevent ruptured eardrums.

How does a ruptured eardrum affect my body? Your eardrum is one of many working parts in your hearing system. Your outer ear collects sounds that make your eardrum vibrate. Those vibrations create a signal for your auditory nerve that the nerve sends to your brain. Your brain translates those signals into sound. When you rupture your eardrum, it’s as if there’s a short circuit in your hearing system because your eardrum can’t transmit sound effectively.

Your eardrum also protects your middle ear from foreign substances like water, bacteria and debris like skin cells. A ruptured eardrum is an easy target for bacteria that cause ear infections (otitis media).

Sometimes, skin cells and other debris pass into your middle ear, forming a middle ear cyst (cholesteatoma). These cysts have proteins that may damage your middle ear bones. Middle ear cysts also increase your risk of developing middle ear infections.

Is a ruptured eardrum serious?

In some instances, a ruptured eardrum maybe a serious health issue if the hole or tear in your ear doesn’t heal on its own. For example, a ruptured eardrum can cause the following:

Long-term hearing loss.

Long-term vertigo.

Long-term dizziness.

Infection that can spread in your ear.

Persistent ear drum perforation (hole).

What are common ruptured eardrum symptoms?

Unless something hit your ear, you may not realize you have a ruptured eardrum until you have symptoms like changes in your hearing or blood and pus draining from your ear. Common ruptured eardrum symptoms include:

Sudden hearing loss. You may have trouble hearing or feel as if sounds are muffled.

Sudden sharp pain in your ear.

Drainage from your ear that may look like pus or blood.

Tinnitus. This is a buzzing or ringing noise in your ear that comes from inside your ears.

What does a ruptured eardrum feel like?

A ruptured eardrum may feel like a sudden sharp pain in your ear. This usually happens if your eardrum is torn or punctured by a sharp object or because something hit your ear very hard.

What causes ruptured eardrum drainage?

Eardrum drainage may happen if you have a middle ear infection. Pus from your infection may flow through the rupture.

What causes a ruptured eardrum?

Middle ear infections are the most common reason for ruptured eardrums. Other ways you may develop a ruptured eardrum include:

Foreign objects: You can rupture your eardrum by using cotton swabs or other small pointed objects to clean your ears or scratch an itch in your ear. You may also rupture your eardrum by accident, such as being hit in the ear by a thrown pencil or running into a low-hanging twig.

Trauma: Someone hits your ear with an open-handed slap or hits your ear or the side of your head very hard.

Barotrauma: You may develop ear barotrauma if your Eustachian tube is blocked or irritated. When that happens, air is trapped between your eardrum and your middle ear, increasing the chance your eardrum may rupture when there’s a change in air pressure.

Sudden explosive sounds: Your eardrums may rupture if you’re close by when there’s an explosion or guns are fired.