Today I went to see an infectious disease specialist after being recommended by my ENT who read my MRI and said I had mastoiditis. My only symptoms are ringing in my head and a crinkling sound in my left ear when I swallow . The new doctor said I do not have mastoiditis because I have no symptoms of it and my mastoid bone is fine. But, there is fluid in my mastoid bone. My new doctor doesn t speak English very well and he speaks very fast, so I am not sure that I caught everything he said. This is what I think he said: 1. My mastoid bone is fine. 2. There is fluid in the bone and the fluid may or may not be infected. 3. I can do nothing about it and it very well may go away in time by itself. 4. I can take oral antibiotics to be sure, but that they are not as affective as intraveneous antibiotics. 5. He thinks I should go the route of intraveneous antibiotics just to be sure. I need to make a choice. Intraveneous antibiotic treatment is drastic and would hamper my ability to work and I MUST work over the next month. Plus there are potential dangerous side effects to this road. I spent the last month with NO treatment at all due to whom I consider an incompetent ENT with no ill affects. I would like to try the oral antibiotic treatment, but I can t get the new doctor to give me any statistics or an opinion of whether or not this is a good possibility for me. In your opinion, how effective is the oral treatment? Wouldn t it at least stave off further damange and maybe clear it up all together? How bad can mastoiditis get in two weeks when I don t have it at all now and I will be taking antibiotics? Thanks so much for your time and patience.