A week ago I went to the ER for an unrelated issue and mentioned that I had muffled hearing in one ear. The attending doctor was a general practitioner. She decided to clean out my ears using tools I'd never seen being used before, that may not have been designed for them.
The first was a blunt scraper tool that she stuck in my ear multiple times until she hit the eardum. It didn't get out all of the wax, and was painful, so I asked if she could use something else. The next was worse- a plastic suction tool, much bigger and more forceful than the steel micro-suction devices my ENT uses. It was so excruciating that I yelped in pain and begged for her to stop. It didn't seem like something that should've been in my ear, but I assumed that she knew what she was doing so I let her go about the procedure. Neither of the tools worked, so she then used some eardrops and irrigation, like my previous providers had used during impacted earwax removals. The wax came out with this and when she looked in my right ear, she said that I had a perforated eardrum. Surprised to see this, she diagnosed me with an ear infection. But it's possible that she herself caused it.
After this, I became unable to listen to music at any volume without pain in my ears. I've never experienced anything like this before. In the past few days, even the sound of cars passing or people speaking will now sometimes hurt as well. Additionally, I've developed tinnitus in the left ear.
I saw an ENT the other day and they didn't find significant hearing loss or see eardrum perforation. The doctor also didn't believe I had an ear infection. I didn't, however, talk too much about the procedure as at that time I didn't consider that the ER doctor could've caused me harm. I think I have what's called hyperacusis or a threshhold shift. I'm concerned that she used tools that weren't supposed to be in my ears or didn't know what she was doing, and that this won't go away. I'm involved in the music industry and this is a big problem.
Why do you think I'm experiencing this pain? I'm concerned about the possible harm that these tools, especially the latter, could've done. What kind of damage could've been caused by putting a strong suction device in the ear, and how much?