Perforated eardrum
Overview
A perforated (burst) eardrum isa hole or tear in your eardrum. It usually gets better on its ownwithin 2 months, but you may need treatment such as antibiotics.
Symptoms
Symptoms of a perforated eardrum usually start suddenly after an: ear infectioninjury (such as getting hit on your ear)loud noisesudden change in air pressure (such as flying on a plane) Most of the time symptoms affect 1 ear and include: hearing lossa ringing or buzzing sound in your ear (tinnitus)earache or ear painitching in your earclear fluid, blood or pus leaking from your earfeeling dizzya high temperature
Treatment
A perforated eardrum usually gets better on its own within 2 months and your hearing returns to normal. You may need antibiotics if you have an ear infection, or to stop you getting an ear infection while your eardrum heals. Sometimes, surgery to repair the eardrum (myringoplasty) may be needed if the eardrum is not healing by itself. See a GP if your symptoms have not started to improve after a few weeks.