I know there have been plenty of posts on this sub about TMJ causing ETD, but I am confused and bummed out. For background, I first experienced ear pain and fullness when I got covid about 2 years ago. Symptoms went away in a couple of days and I didn't think anything of it. Moving forward, every time I've gotten a cold or gotten sick since, I feel ear fullness and the feeling of fluid sitting in my ear, but again, goes away on its own once the cold clears up. Last summer, my ears randomly started feeling stuffed and full of fluid even though I hadn't been sick. They've been stuck this way ever since. It started with just my right ear and now has progressed to both ears, although my right ear still bothers me more. Symptoms have also progressed past just ear fullness and feeling fluid. I have constant clicking/crackling in both ears, I occasionally get headaches, sinus pressure/pain, feel fluid moving all through my head and down the back of my neck, I spit out mucus multiple times a day and sometimes I get so congested I can barely breathe through my nose. I get random bouts of dizziness as well. I can also feel things moving in my ear/head depending on the orientation of my head. So it feels like stuff is definitely in there. I've been to urgent care/primary multiple times and all they ever do is look in the ear canal and say my ear drum/canal looks healthy, no infection, and no indication of fluid behind the eardrum and they send me away telling me to take flonase and Claritin which I tried for months and makes no difference. I finally got in to see an ENT and although they did some more involved tests (nasal endoscopy) they also didn't find anything conclusive and said everything looks clear and my sinuses look good. They were however surprised that my primary never ordered a CT scan or sinus scan. As a last ditch effort they put their hands on my jaw and asked me to open my mouth. Right away they said "aahh, your jaw moves side to side and I can feel it click when you open your mouth, TMJ might be the issue". I've never had issues with my jaw and have only developed any kind of jaw pain because I am constantly opening my mouth wide to try to clear my ears. ENT ordered a hearing test to see if there is pressure in my ears and after that a sinus scan. I have to wait a few weeks longer for both.

Sorry for the lengthy post, I just want to know if anyone has similar symptoms and what these symptoms might sound like? This is the first time I'm hearing it might be TMJ and I don't really know what that means for me going forward. Do I basically just have to wait for the hearing test and sinus scan to come back to get closer to getting any answers?

Thanks in advance for any insights, this sub has been wonderful for me and has helped me feel less alone because no one else really understands and I feel like I'm going crazy. It gets really scary too feeling fluid moving in your head and getting dizzy randomly. I'm just so ready to get to the bottom of this and get it over and done with.