Earaches

WHEN TO SEE YOUR DOCTOR

* Your ear pain lasts more than a week.

What Your Symptom Is Telling You

Once you've stayed up half the night with a child who has an earache, you learn to respect this symptom. Adults get earaches, too, although less often, and it's just as likely they'll be kept awake by the pain.

The microbes that cause earaches usually show up first as a respiratory infection in your nose or throat. All it takes is a little push—you blow your nose, you lie down—and the viruses or bacteria move into your eustachian tubes. These are tiny channels that connect your nasal passages to your inner ears. From there, it's a short trip to the middle ear and your eardrum, which is laced with sensitive nerve endings. The infection creates pus, which pushes against your eardrum, causing pain. It can even make the eardrum burst.

Children get more earaches because they have more respiratory infections and because their eustachian tubes are immature and unable to handle even a small infection.

Other causes of earache include swimmer's ear, which can happen when excess water is trapped in the ear canal. Earaches can also be triggered by hair and other objects that get stuck in the ear.

Symptom Relief

Try these tips to take the ache out of your ear.

Warm up to olive oil. A few drops of olive oil or mineral oil can provide temporary relief, says Clough Shelton, M.D., an associate clinical professor of otolaryngology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a member of the House Ear Institute at the University of Southern California. Warm it up like a baby's bottle under hot tap water for a few minutes. Test the oil first (it should be about body temperature) and apply it with an ear dropper. Make sure to use only enough to coat the inner lining of the ear, he says.

Turn on the heat. There are two approaches for using heat to help relieve the pain of an earache. You can try setting a heating pad on medium and placing it on top of the sore ear. Or you can turn a hair dryer on the lowest warm setting and direct the warm air down the ear canal, holding the dryer 6 to 12 inches from your ear. Do not use the hair dryer for more than three to five minutes.

Prop yourself up. You're better off sitting up in bed than lying flat on your back, says David Marty, M.D., a Jefferson, Missouri, otolaryngologist and author of the The Ear Book. Sitting up actually allows blood to drain away from the head so there's less congestion in the eustachian tube, he says. "That's why kids with an earache will quit crying when you pick them up and start crying again when you lay them down," he says. "It's not that they want to be held, it's just that they feel better with their heads up."

Fill up on fluids. Drinking lots of water and juice not only helps soothe the symptoms, but repeated swallowing can also help clear your eustachian tubes, says Charles P. Kimmelman, M.D., professor of otolaryngology at Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital. Chewing and yawning are also good for clearing your eustachian tubes, he says.

Try a vasoconstrictor. Over-the-counter nasal sprays like Neo-Synephrine contain the ingredient phenylephrine, which helps return your eustachian tube to normal functioning, says Dr. Kimmelman. "The spray shrinks down the lining of the nose and hopefully the region around the entrance of the eustachian tubes, allowing the tube to function better. If the eustachian tube returns to normal, you'll feel better," he explains. Don't use phenylephrine-containing nosedrops for more than a few days, and make sure you don't exceed the daily dosage recommended on the label. Overuse of nasal sprays can actually make the problem worse.

Opt for a painkiller. Another possible temporary remedy for ear pain: an over-the-counter analgesic like Advil or Tylenol, says W. Steven Pray, Ph.D., professor of pharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy, at Southwestern Oklahoma State University in Weatherford. "Just don't fall into the trap of taking an analgesic and thinking because your ear doesn't hurt anymore, you don't need an antibiotic," he says. "The analgesic doesn't kill the organisms—it just controls the pain."

Ask about antibiotics. Because a bacterial infection is one of the most common causes of earache, most doctors recommend taking antibiotics like Amoxil and Ceclor to beat the bug, stresses Dr. Pray.

Beaching Swimmer's Ear

It's great to take a dip in the pool on a hot summer's day—what's not so great is when you bring some of the water home with you in your ear. Consider these tips for beaching swimmer's ear.

Be careful with your cleaning. Cleaning your ears a day or so before a swim may actually rob your ears of the protection they need to prevent swimmer's ear, says Dr. Pray. "You need to keep the wax inside to protect and lubricate," he explains. "It's just as if you put wax on your finger and then put your finger in water—you know it's not going to get wet." When you do clean your ears, don't dig for wax; simply wipe the outer ear with a clean washcloth, he says.

Try alcohol. A drop or two of isopropyl alcohol in the ear may cause any water that remains in the ear to evaporate, says Dr. Pray.

Dry it out. Made with isopropyl alcohol and glycerin, Swim-Ear is one of several products on the market designed to evaporate any water that may remain in the ear, says Dr. Pray.