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Earache
Last reviewed: 06.07.2025
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Ear pain is one of the most severe types of pain known to man. If a small child has this pain, but he cannot tell about it, it is enough to check what hurts by tapping on the ear with a finger. If the child cannot stand it and screams, then it is the ear that hurts. What are the causes of ear pain?
Structure of the ear
Ear disease can make any part of the ear inoperative and painful. This can be the inner ear, as well as the middle or outer ear. The inner ear is a system of cavities called labyrinths. They are interconnected.
The inner ear of a child develops in the womb and the development ends before the child is born. And all defects of the inner ear, if any, appear in the mother's womb. Then the inner ear grows again until the age of 17-19, when the reproductive system is formed.
The middle ear is a cavity with the eardrum on one side and the inner ear on the other. This is how nature made our auditory system. When a person is sick, the so-called sulfur, pus, and mucus can accumulate in the middle ear. These symptoms are aggravated if the Eustachian tubes are blocked. These tubes allow unpleasant liquid and mucus to flow into the nasal cavity. Then the person develops a runny nose.
When a child is small, the Eustachian tubes are short and small. Because of this, children are susceptible to infections and may have middle ear pain. These diseases affect 50% of small children under one year old. Children who reach the age of 6 years, in 90% of cases, suffer from inflammation of the middle ear. Although infections can occur in any part of the ear.
The structure of the outer ear is as follows: the auricle, the external auditory canal and the eardrum.
Ear infections
Infections can affect any part of the ear, and this can also cause pain of varying intensity. But even if the pain is not very severe, you still need to see a doctor, because the pain can get worse. And then it will be much more difficult to treat the ears.
The culprits of ear pain
Middle ear infections
The auricle is rarely affected by such diseases, as well as inflammations. But if the auricle becomes inflamed and infected, it becomes dense, red in color, and may even develop a rash - an allergic reaction to bacterial toxins. It is called eczema.
The infection often affects the external auditory canal of the ear. When the ear is healthy, the external auditory canal is protected by wax. But when the ear is sick, the wax inside it liquefies, making the skin soft, pliable, swollen. The skin can be covered with cracks, rashes. Or the skin can be covered with scales, which are formed because the wax inside the ear dries out. The ear becomes more sensitive and hurts a lot.
External otitis
It is also called swimmer's ear. The ear becomes inflamed, increases in size, the person has difficulty hearing, and it feels like water has entered the ear. The causes of external otitis are infections, attempts to penetrate the ear with a foreign object to clean it, chemicals that get into the ear (hairspray, other chemicals). The disease called swimmer's ear most often affects small children.
Symptoms – the external auditory canal is covered with small red pimples. Causes – viral infections, fungi. If you look into the external auditory canal with a special mirror, you can see damage in the form of scratches.
Boils are also included in this sad list.
The person is also bothered by itching in the ear, severe pain in the auricle, and pus that comes out of the ear.
Treatment changes the situation. The sooner it is started, the more chances there are to cure the ear faster. This can happen in five to seven days.
Middle ear: infectious diseases
Among these diseases, the most common is otitis. It is called otitis media after the part of the ear that is inflamed.
Risk groups for otitis are children from six months to one year and children from four years old. Adults are also susceptible to otitis.
Once a child reaches 8 years of age, he or she is much less likely to suffer from otitis than younger children.
The middle ear is affected by otitis due to bacteria and fungi, this is the most common cause of ear pain. The pain becomes much stronger during swallowing food, and also when the child has a runny nose and the mother tries to clear his nose. Even when chewing, the child can feel severe pain in the ear.
The riskiest time for ear colds is winter and autumn with their weather changes and drafts. This is the time of colds, so people are especially susceptible to infections that affect the middle ear.
The culprits of otitis are the Eustachian tubes, which become inflamed and blocked due to colds in the lungs and bronchi. Other causes may include allergies of various types and significant swelling and inflammation of the adenoids.
Even if a child sucks on his mother's breast or milk from a bottle while lying on his back, he may develop inflammation of the Eustachian tubes or their blockage with wax. Then the pressure in the middle ear increases, fluid accumulates there, and the child may even cry out in pain.
How does otitis media progress?
It can occur with acute pain or with prolonged but weaker pain. Otitis can recur if left untreated or if prevention of this disease is not carried out.
After this, hearing may deteriorate. However, if the disease is treated properly, it will not recur so often and the consequences for health will not be so serious. Hearing will not deteriorate.
In addition to otitis media, the culprit of pain may be wax that has accumulated in the ear. It is called a wax plug. This plug is located in the ear canal. When you try to dig this plug out yourself, you can injure your ear.
Another reason why an ear can hurt is because a person has had a sore throat or gum disease. These organs – the throat and mouth – are closely connected to the ears, and infections in one of these organs negatively affect the others.
Ear pain can occur due to diving to great depths or after jumping from a great height, for example, with a parachute, as well as during a flight.
How to differentiate otitis media?
You may not suspect otitis media in children if they do not complain about the disease. But they may cry from pain, feel heaviness in the sore ear, the child becomes nervous, afraid of everything, cries, gets irritated.
Symptoms, in addition to ear pain, may include high fever, dizziness, diarrhea, vomiting, loss of appetite, general weakness. There may be extraneous sounds, buzzing, ringing, noises in the ear. If all these symptoms are present, it is worth taking the child to the doctor for immediate medical care. Otherwise, the child may become completely deaf and hearing will not be restored.
Is otitis curable?
Yes, otitis can be treated, especially if the disease is in its initial stage. Otitis can become complicated, but it is impossible to predict its course.
After the start of treatment, otitis goes away in 10 days on average. But if otitis is not treated or if you do not protect yourself from colds, then this disease can drag on for 9-10 weeks.
Complications from untreated ear diseases
The ear can hurt not only in the area of the auditory canal, but also in the area of the eardrum. It can be affected by an infection - bacterial or viral. A past infection gives many negative complications, including increased pressure inside the ear, fluid in the middle ear. The eardrum from past infections and inflammation can hurt a lot and even rupture.
When the fluid drains from the ear, the eardrum stops hurting so much. If a person is diagnosed with arthritis, the eardrum soon heals on its own. The pain subsides, but the person's hearing is lost, and the person begins to hear much worse than before the disease. Only surgery can restore the eardrum, but hearing is not a fact.
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Mastoiditis
This is a disease that affects the mastoid process (it is located behind the ear, it is a protrusion of the skull in the form of a bone). When this process becomes inflamed, a person also experiences pain.
You need to see a doctor even if you feel mild pain. If the disease is neglected, it can lead to hearing loss. Mastoiditis occurs after inflammation of the middle ear has not been treated or has been treated poorly.
Inner ear infections and their consequences
Infections in the inner ear occur in humans much less frequently than inflammatory processes in the middle or outer ear. But the negative consequences of these infections are much more complex and severe for health. One of the most severe and complex diseases of the inner ear is viral labyrinthitis. It is this disease that is the culprit of the inflammatory process in the labyrinth of the inner ear.
When a virus infects a person's body, it can affect the health of the ear and hearing in general. If a woman is pregnant, the virus can have an irreversible negative impact not only on her health but also on the health of the fetus. The child may develop hearing loss as a result of inflammation of the inner ear.
If the virus affects the inner ear of a child who was recently born, then the inflammation of the ear part can also impair hearing. And this hearing impairment does not develop gradually, but can occur suddenly. True, this impairment is treated within two weeks, hearing is restored.
Viral and bacterial ear infections differ in their consequences.
The culprit of bacterial labyrinthitis may be meningitis - inflammation of the membranes of the brain. Bacterial labyrinthitis can develop, as a rule, in a very young child soon after birth and ends in complete deafness. Viral labyrinthitis is treated, its consequences are less tragic for a person.
Viral labyrinthitis can be distinguished from other ear diseases by tinnitus, dizziness, and severe ear pain.
Symptoms of bacterial labyrinthitis include fever, dizziness, rapid and uncontrollable eye movement, and pus coming out of the ears. The ear in the mastoid region becomes red and inflamed. An abscess may form behind the ear.
If your child has these symptoms, you should not self-medicate, but should immediately consult a doctor.