Dubai, UAE: Would you head to the pharmacy for a pain reliever if you had an earache? Don’t, advises a specialist ear doctor. Seek professional help instead, as an earache can be due to various reasons. “It could be due to a middle or an outer ear infection. It’s important to identify the source (of the ache), whether bacterial (infection), fungal or due to a wax build-up,” says Dr. Nikita Malhotra, specialist ENT Surgeon,Medcare Hospital, Dubai.
There are other reasons for an earache too such as a simple cough and cold. An earache can also occur due to a spasm in the jaw, a tooth ache or a throat infection. In such cases, if you end up using the wrong kind of ear drops, you could make matters worse, she warns.
Check out the doctor’s top 10 tips to keep your hearing sharp.
1) Earache is a common complaint. It could be due to a multitude of reasons such as an outer ear bacterial infection due to swimming and could affect the ear canal. If you have any form of ear pain, even a mild ache or irritation, seek doctor’s advice. Do not procrastinate. If a child has ‘glue ear’, which is build-up of fluid deep inside the ear, you need to put in grommets — tiny plastic tubes — into the ear drum to drain the fluid. Children with this condition should wear ear plugs when swimming. Also, it is important for adults and children to remember that they should not swim with any form of ear infection as it could get worse and they could transmit it to others.
2) Never use ear buds to prod and remove wax from the ears. Nearly 70 per cent of patients come to an ear doctor after using these buds in the wrong way. Children can easily perforate their ear drums if they use these buds. Ear wax performs an important function of providing a water-proof protective layer inside the ear canal, and without it, you could easily get an ear infection. Most times, ear wax comes out on its own naturally.
3) Some people believe that putting a few drops olive oil into the ear is good for relieving ear congestion, but they are wrong. Using it as an ear lubricant creates a humid environment inside the ear, making it messy and gooey. Leave your ears alone.
4) Parents should always be alert to their child’s sense of hearing. If the teacher says the child is not paying attention at school, if the child is not responding to you, if you have to constantly repeat things to the child or if the child watches TV with the volume turned up high, seek doctor’s advice. Also, with newborns, it’s best to get an ABR (auditory brainstem response) screening done. It measures the hearing nerve’s response to sounds.
5) In today’s ipod- and mp3-driven culture, we all would do well to follow the 60-60 rule, even though it is not an easy task. This rule gets you to listen to music only for 60 minutes a day and at 60 per cent of the maximum volume. Also, for example, if you are at a club or a discotheque, try not to stay too long and avoid standing next to the speaker. People who work with drills or as disc jockeys can suffer from noise-induced hearing loss. If you feel you are having trouble hearing, get an audiogram exam done. The exam checks your ability to hear sounds at various levels and intensity. A dip at 4 kHZ frequency (the normal range of hearing in humans) will show that you have noise-induced hearing loss. A large loss of hearing is around this frequency.
6) If you are hit by an object on the side of your head near the ear, have been slapped on the ear and feel a numbness as a result of it, or if you have bleeding from the ear, get to the doctor quickly. You may have a ruptured ear drum. Most of the time, the perforated ear drum heals naturally but sometimes, you may have to undergo surgery to get it repaired.
7) If you suffer from dizziness or vertigo, it could be due to a multitude of reasons. One of them could be an inner ear infection. Anti-malaria drugs could also cause vertigo. Diabetics, too, are prone to suffer from outer ear infections and dizziness.
8) Age-related hearing loss is a reality, so get a regular audiogram screening done every year. A sudden hearing loss or a dip in hearing should be attended to immediately or the hearing loss could become permanent. It could be due to due to a variety of reasons such as fluctuation of blood pressure and sugar levels, thyroid problems and other metabolic imbalances. Keep your blood sugar under control and get your ears checked by an ENT specialist.
9) Any issues in the nose such as allergic rhinitis can cause blockages of the eustachian tube in the ear, leading to muffled hearing. For some professionals such as pilots, airline crew and divers, it is essential they keep their nose well decongested. Sucking a sweet on a plane is not a good idea; chewing gum is better as it helps equalise the pressure between the inside and outside of your ears.
10) When feeding an infant, ensure it is propped up and not reclining. Eating in such a position could lead to ear pressure problems and cause blockages and fluid build-up in the inner ear because eustachian tubes in a baby are very short. Eustachian tubes help equalise pressure and drain fluid from the middle ear.
© Gulf News
Twitter