An ear infection can quickly spread through the blood stream and make you very ill. The ear is composed of 3 parts: the inner ear, the middle ear and the outer ear. The ear infection can be any of these 3 ear parts and one part can infect the others. You can have inner ear infection or middle ear infection or outer ear infection with different symptoms or similar symptoms.
In the following table, ear problems and their possible causes are listed.
Ear Problem/Symptom | Possible Cause/Reason |
Earache & fever, feeling of fullness in the ear, | Ear infection, middle ear infection, ear injuries, cold, teeth problems, sinus infection, changes in air pressure in plane when ascending or descending. |
Hearing loss | Excess earwax, serious otitis media |
Excess earwax, ear infection, dental problem, medication such as antibiotics and large amounts of aspirin, and drinking excessive alcohol. | |
Pain when ear is wiggled, itching or burning in the ear. | Swimmer's ear |
Discharge from the ears | Swimmer's ear, eardrum rupture |
Feeling of something in the ear | Objects in the ears |
Itching in the ears | Swimmer's ear |
Common ear infections occur in the middle ear or the ear canal. A middle ear infection (otitis media) usually starts when a cold causes the ‘Eustachian tube' (the tube that connects throat and middle ear) to swell and close. Otitis media affects the area inside the eardrum and all the small bones. When the tube closes, fluids seeps into the ear and bacteria starts to grow. As the body fights the infection, pressure builds up, causing extremely sharp earache with or without fever. Left untreated, the pressure can cause the eardrum to rupture (perforation).
Multiple ruptures may lead to hearing loss. The perforation of eardrum will release all pressure relieving pain. This means loss of hearing and fluid discharge. This kind of ear infection is common in infants due to the position of the baby while feeding allowing milk bacteria to grow in the auditory tube.
Otitis media with effusion (serous otitis) is a collection of fluid in the ear that often remains after ear infection. Effusion is not a cause of concern and may not require a treatment unless there is a hearing loss or it lasts longer than 3 months.
A buildup of pressure in the middle ear can also be due to a change in altitude, causing earache.
Swimmer's Ear (Otitis External)
When water is trapped in the ear canal, bacteria that normally inhabit there multiply, causing infection and irritation of the ear canal. The infection may progress to the outer ear. The infection of the outer ear is common in swimmers, so this condition is known as Swimmer’s ear. Since the cause of the infection is water trapped in the ear canal, bathing or showering may also cause this common infection. Remedy for Swimmer's ear
Causes of Earache or Ear Pain are summarized below:
- Buildup of excessive ear wax or fluid.
- Infection of the middle ear
- Ear injuries
- Sinus infections
- Colds
- Allergies
- Teeth remedy
- Changes in air pressure in a plane (ascending or descending)
At birth, humans have about 30,000 hair cells inside the cochlea, which can be damaged by infections, loud noise, aging, genetic diseases or due to certain drugs. The damaged hair cells do not generally regrow in mature humans. The loss of hair cells and the neurons they contain is the most common cause of hearing impairment.
However, a team of scientists led by John Brigande at the Oregon Health and Science University, in Portland have used gene therapy on mouse embryos to grow hair cells with the potential to reduce hearing loss published in the Journal Nature. This study could one day treat deafness and inner-ear disease in humans.
