Why You Should Never Ignore Your Ear Pain?

Posted by Rex Conner on January 13th, 2022

If you are facing sharp, recurring pains in your ears, most of the time it means that your ear is infected with bacteria or viruses. Most of the time we ignore the pain and believe that with time it would go away. But it should not be done. If the ear infection is left unchecked, then it would lead to a serious problem. Ear infections might spread beyond the ear canal to other organs of your body leading to a lot of symptoms such as headache, runny nose, cold and more. (Information source: https://www.theeardepot.com/)

Most of the time it is seen that children are prone to ear infections, but adults also suffer from ear infections but up to some extent. That’s why your first line of defence would be to go for treatment for an ear infection. You need to visit the Peterborough hearing clinic.

Causes Of Ear Infection:

Ear infections can happen in a lot of different ways. But to narrow it down, it has been divided into three kinds: inner ear infection, middle ear infection and outer ear infection.

Inner Ear Infection:

The inner ear resides the organs that are responsible for hearing and balance. The messages to the brain get scrambled when either your inner ear or the nerves sending signals to the brain from the inner ear gets infected, leading to an uncomfortable experience of symptoms. But inner ear infections are not that common and mostly happen to adults. An infection in the inner ear results in symptoms like dizziness, possible hearing loss, nausea, vomiting and more. They are usually caused by a virus and can happen from measles, influenza or hepatitis.

Middle Ear Infection:

This kind of infection is common in children and it is found less in adults. But adults who smoke or are exposed to smoking suffers from environmental allergies or have a viral or bacterial upper respiratory infection can suffer from a middle ear infection. When you are sick due to a cold or flu, your eustachian tube gets congested and as a result, mucus gets trapped in the middle ear creating a moist environment for germs to grow and multiply and cause ear infection symptoms. Also, first-hand or second-hand smoke can obstruct the eustachian tube. Symptoms of middle ear infection include ear pain, liquid draining from the ear, possible fever and more.

Outer Ear Infection:

This infection is actually an ear canal skin infection, more widely known as “swimmer’s ear”. Most swimmers are prone to this kind of infection but it can happen to patients with mould allergies or who takes part in outdoor activities. The most common cause of outer ear infection is contaminated water from pools or lakes which hangs out in the ear canal for a long time. Using cotton swabs can cause wear on the skin making it vulnerable to organisms from dirt, sand or water which later causes infection. The majority of this infection is bacterial but it can also be fungal. Outer ear infection symptoms include muffled hearing, pain when you tug or push on the ear, itchiness inside the ear, etc.

The bottom line, ear pain can be caused by many things. Some of them are non-fatal and some of them are fatal and there is no possible way to tell what you have got, so it is better to go to a doctor and never ignore it.