I have been bothered by recurring ear aches in right ear for 3 years. Never an infection. It gets so bad I can’t get out of bed. Sitting up makes it worse. I was finally able to get into my ENT during a bout of it. He diagnosed it as psoriatic arthritis in the ear! I was shocked. He said I’m going to lose my hearing more rapidly in that ear. Just got hearing aids in December. Oh and sometimes wearing my hearing aids makes it hurt worse and the canal swells. Now I’m getting small amount of swelling in left ear. Treatment is warm compresses. And that ugly word- steroid pack. Has anybody ever heard of this or have it. I’ve started to research literature but so far it’s sparse. I am on Cosyntex after failing a lot of biologics.
I haven’t heard of it but it’s not surprising. Do you have jaw involvement as well?
I definitely have had ear pain that I attribute to PsA, as well as jaw pain. Mine is not as severe as yours but I do think it is partly the cause of my tinnitus. It sucks.
Best thing to do is treatment to calm the disease - are you on DMARDs and/or biologics? Are they working well?
This is one of those “If I knew then what I know now” topics for me. It has become clear that some issues I struggled with in my early teen years were all symptoms of PSA. Rib,leg joint and jaw pain as well as uncommon infections or rashes. I was diagnosed with TMJ and used a mouth guard around 12 yrs old and was resolved until PSA fully presented around age 39-40 (2014). It returned worse than ever but the specialist was dismissive and wouldn’t treat for it. I didn’t receive the PSA diagnosis until months later but after finding a biologic that I responded well to the jaw, ear and temporal pain resolved unequally with my other symptoms except for the stubborn ones. It flares up occasionally just as often as others do still but when my PSA is controlled it is too. I found the same pattern with carpal tunnel issues. In December I had severe tooth and jaw pain that sent me straight to the dentist but was told it was due to allergies that were oddly severe. Rheumy bumped up my cosentyx dose and everything resolved again. Even after years of dealing with this disease it still manages to fool me at times and keep me guessing. Hope this helps and would still follow through with doctors to rule out other possibilities.
I have experienced the same issues you mentioned with hearing aids aggravating the canal causing additional aches. Mine have been due to wearing ear plugs and other noise protection devices daily for work. Frustrating for sure but there is no option other than using them. That is something that even when doing well I struggle with so if you come across anything that helps please share it.
Yes sadly it can affect ears, just like it can affect teeth and eyes. Poor you. Let’s hope they can get you ahead of it.
No jaw involvement thank goodness.
I’m on Cosentyx and it’s not working very well. I’ve had a complicated case of psa and over 15 years have been on a lot of biologics. Rheumatologist says I’m running out of medications to try and at 69 he wants to wring out every drop of help before changing it. Dr. Worries I’ll run out of meds to try .he considers 69 not old.
Interesting how different doctors can be. I’m 40. I have 2 biologics I haven’t tried yet. I’ve failed all the DMARDs except sulfasalazine and I’m on azathioprine which isn’t usually given for PsA. Luckily the biologic I’m on is actually working but my doctor seems to think they’ll have a new med by the time I run out or well just start retrying anything that I’ve failed (except Remicade bc we know I have antibodies to that one).
I’m worried about running out of meds, so I get the hesitation to change, but also if it’s not working is it worth staying on it? Idk. Sorry to hear that you’re also almost out of options, but hopefully something new will be released soon. 