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Pain in the ears with colds
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Whatever time of the year was outside the window, none of us is immune to the cold: in the summer heat, we so much want to drink ice liquid. The result of a minute bliss is a cold. And instead of lying on the beach with friends, you have to sit at home, taking the necessary procedures. But especially the risk of getting sick increases in autumn - the spring period, when slush, cold and piercing wind, and do not want to "still" or "already" pull on a lot of things, including headwear. It is in this situation, most often you can get hypothermia and, accordingly, pain in the ears with a cold.
Causes of pain in the ears with colds
Pain symptomatology in the hearing aid may be a consequence of many diseases, but the most often diagnosed pathology is otitis, or as it is popularly called - a cold.
The causes of pain in the ears with colds are often associated with a decrease in the body's defenses.
The second most likely source of the symptomatology in question can be pathogenic flora, bacterial or infectious damage to the tissues of the external and / or inner ear.
But immediately put a similar diagnosis also does not follow, since the source of the pain, possibly having nothing to do with the infection. For example, accumulated fluid in the ear - the result of an inflammatory process or a banal visit to the pool with a subsequent exit to the street, which exerts a pressing effect on the tympanic membrane. Caught in the auricle of water, with a sharp cold wind in the street or low temperature, it cools, thereby causing an inflammatory process. In this case, all the pain symptoms will disappear as soon as the health recovers.
But the cold affects not only the tissues of the ear canal. Everyone knows that usually it starts with a throat or nose. As a rule, the diseases localized in these organs of the person, often, give pain in the ear, although such symptomatology has less intensity.
Otitis is the most commonly diagnosed disease that develops, often after an untreated or "cold-borne" cold, which has an infectious or viral nature. Otolaryngologists divide acute otitis into purulent and catarrhal. The essence of the difference is that the latter proceeds without the formation of abscesses, and in the case of diagnosing the first, the auditory canal is filled with pus produced by the pathogenic flora, which must be removed, while sanitizing the cavity.
The cause of pain can be swelling, which affected the tissues of the auditory tube, eliminating the narrowing drugs edema, it is possible to get rid of an unpleasant symptom.
Symptoms of pain in the ears with colds
We begin to feel the onset of the catarrhal disease when there is discomfort symptomatology, which begins to bother the sick person. And the symptoms of pain in the ears with colds are just one of them.
Usually it all starts with a sore throat or itching inside the auricle. Gradually, the cold starts to "overgrow" with other symptoms. This can be a complex of all the factors listed below, and only a few of them can manifest themselves.
- Injury of the ear, decrease in the threshold of sound perception.
- The appearance of problems with sleep. The pain in the ear simply does not give us a normal sleep, exhausting.
- Febrile state. The temperature of the body can increase to 40 ºС.
- A constant background noise that haunts the patient.
- Liquid secretions are greenish, white or yellowish, less often brown, shade. This fact can speak about the perforation of the tympanic membrane, which arose as a result of an infectious organ damage.
- Irritability.
- Pain when swallowing.
- Dizziness.
After the person has caught a cold, the pain starts to disturb not at once, but only after the expiration of a certain time interval, when the inflammatory process is already started and is rapidly progressing. The main thing is not to miss the time and start therapy during this period, otherwise inflammation will affect the inner part of the auditory canal, which is more serious. The intensity of the shooting pain becomes unbearable.
Who to contact?
Diagnosis of pain in the ears with a cold
Before deciding on the pathology, you need to make an appointment with the doctor. In this case, the specialist is an otolaryngologist. Diagnosis of pain in the ears with a cold begins with a specialist's examination of the ear passage with the help of a special ENT - a tool - an otoscope.
Not damaged by the disease, the eardrum has a smooth, slightly transparent grayish-pink hue.
The indicator of the disease is the hyperemic mucosa of the canal, its puffiness, the presence of other pathological symptoms.
Using a pneumatic otoscope, the doctor checks the presence or absence of fluid. A small amount of air is fed into the passageway. This is necessary to obtain the vibration of the tympanic membrane. If the required response force is not observed, therefore, there is a fluid accumulation in the passageway.
With clinical indications, tympanometry is performed, which allows to diagnose the infectious nature of the disease.
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Treatment of pain in the ears with colds
The cold, it would seem, is not such a dangerous disease, but how many unpleasant hours and days does it bring to the person affected by it? Therefore, at the very first signs of its onset, it is necessary to turn to a qualified specialist who, having made the correct diagnosis, will give the necessary recommendations and will decide the treatment therapy.
The treatment of pain in the ears with colds has two main goals: to remove the pain syndrome and to stop the inflammatory process, bringing the patient's body to full recovery.
If the patient has started to solve the problem, when the disease has not yet passed into the severe phase, it is quite possible to manage with special drops that will extinguish the inflammation, and, consequently, relieve the person of the pain. In this case, the otolaryngologist appoints analgesics and anti-inflammatory drugs.
As anesthetic drugs can be attributed: paracetamol, spazgan, celecoxib, phenazone, maxigan, metamizole sodium, analgin, spazdolzin, meloxicam and others.
Paracetamol is prescribed to the patient in the following dosage:
- Adult patients and adolescents (over the age of twelve) - one - two tablets two - four times a day, but the daily amount of medication taken should not exceed 4 g.
- Younger children, whose age falls between six and twelve years, usually take half or a whole tablet four times a day.
- To very small patients who are already three months old, but not yet six, the dosage is calculated individually for 10 mg per kilogram of the baby's weight.
Contraindications for paracetamol include severe kidney and / or liver dysfunction, alcoholism, anemia, hypersensitivity to the components of the drug, as well as the period of the first trimester of pregnancy.
To stop the inflammation usually appointed: ibuprofen, tiaprofenova acid, indomethacin, naproxen, piroxicam, fenbufen, ketoprofen and others.
Ibuprofen is administered orally, directly after ingestion. With a moderate intensity of pain symptoms, the patient should take 1.2 grams per day.
It is strictly forbidden to enter ibuprofen in the treatment protocol if there is ulcerative colitis, perforation or ulcerative lesions of the mucous organs of the digestive tract, hematopoiesis, vision problems, expressed renal and hepatic dysfunction, amblyopia, as well as hypersensitivity to one or several components of the drug.
If the inflammatory process has passed into a severe stage, accompanied by severe pain and purulent secretions, then without the help of antibiotics it will not be possible to cope with the problem. Their reception is guaranteed to relieve the body of the infection and accelerate the very recovery.
Can be appointed: anauran, otofa, sfradeks, norks (norfloxacin), otypax, otinum, tsipromed, candybiotic and others.
Drops for the ear of the candybiotic are applied topically. Four - five droplets should be instilled in the ear canal three times - four times throughout the day. The duration of the therapeutic course is from seven to ten days, but relief can already be expected in three to five days.
Contraindications include increased intolerance of the component composition of drops, as well as perforation of the tympanic membrane. Do not use candybiotic and for the treatment of children, whose age did not reach six years.
If the inflammation affects the tissues of the external ear, then antiseptic ointments and solutions are prescribed. So warming applications based on boric acid or alcohol-vodka compresses can be applied, which are imposed on the suffering organ for 10 to 15 minutes.
Homeopathic remedies are also used, but with a severe form of the disease they are not so effective.
In the presence of purulent discharge, often, doctors prescribe mirinotomiyu (ear tubes), helping to remove pus and accumulating fluid. On such a step the attending physician goes in case the allocation has been observed for more than three months. The second indication for its use can be frequent infections, recurring in the auditory canal.
To save the patient from the accumulation of pathological secretions, the doctor, through the hole in the eardrum, gently feeds a thin tube made of special plastic or metal. Depending on the effectiveness of the treatment process, this tube is installed in the ear for a period of eight months to one and a half years. After the need for it disappears, it goes out on its own. If necessary, this period can be increased, but this decision remains within the competence of the specialist.
Means for ear pain with colds
When pain symptoms appear, many of our compatriots, ignoring the treatment to the doctor, try to heal independently, which is not only unpromising, but also simply dangerous, especially if the disease has passed into the acute phase of leakage. After all, in the acute form of the flow, warming compresses are strictly prohibited, and it is inadmissible to use medicines in the form of ear drops. Therefore, the remedy for ear pain with colds should be prescribed only by a qualified specialist. It is the doctor who is able to correctly assess the clinical picture and to write out effective medication.
In the treatment of an earache, mainly, topical drugs are used. Often, in the appointment sheet, you can see, with a mild form of cold, drops such as otinum, otypax, sfradex and their analogs.
With the progression of the disease and the transition of otitis to the stage of acute disease, the aforementioned drops are usually no longer used, in order not to aggravate the situation. The bet is made on stronger antibiotics of a wide spectrum of action.
Quite often modern methods of treatment in the fight against pyogenic bacteria in the middle ear use laser therapy.
Insidious cold is that its first symptoms are well felt by the patients, whereas it is almost impossible to determine the full recovery without the help of a doctor. Therefore, if a person did not visit a specialist, and took the medication independently, based on the recommendations of the pharmacist from the pharmacy, the untreated disease threatens to develop into a chronic condition with a slow pathology, which increases the risk of relapse of exacerbation of otitis.
Alternative remedies for ear pain with colds
Catarrhal diseases persecute humanity from the moment when it began to perceive itself as an individual separated from the animal world. For all the time of the conscious existence of mankind, he managed to accumulate considerable experience in the treatment of a disease.
The range of recipes that can remove pain symptoms, manifested in the ear area, is also quite wide. Alternative means of ear pain for colds are numerous, but we will mention only a few of them in the article.
- Relieve the pain will help lavender oil, tuya oil, alcohol tincture of marigold or mint. It should be several times during the day to dig in five drops of medicine, and the pain will gradually fade.
- You can apply a bandage of medical cotton wool or a napkin moistened in vodka or alcohol diluted in water onto the diseased ear. The heating procedure can stand for twenty minutes.
- Removes noise in the ears, which often accompanies pain, simple chewing confectionery cloves.
- To remove the inflammatory process, you can try using hot bags with salt. For this, a canvas bag is taken, well-heated salt is poured into it. It must be applied to a painful place every half hour. The procedure should be repeated until the pain syndrome disappears, and the inflammation is not stopped.
- On the rights of ear drops are used horseradish juice. It is enough two droplets three times a day and the pain, and with it the disease, gradually recede.
- Used and garlic oil, which today can be purchased at the pharmacy or cooked independently. For the medicine, you need 100 ml of very hot, but not boiling, any vegetable oil. It is injected with two garlic teeth, previously crushed or crushed with a knife. Let it brew and drain. From gauze, bandage or cotton wool to make turundum (roll a flagellum), moisten in the received solution and gently place it in the sore ear, leaving for about ten minutes. Such a composition is an excellent disinfectant, which inhibits fungal organisms and microbes.
- Against the background of colds, you should eat lemon daily together with its zest.
- You can prepare a tincture of propolis. Take 10 g of bee products and for a while put in the fridge, after which it will easily be grated on a grater. The resulting chips should be placed in a container of dark glass, where the 70 ° alcohol wine should be added. The liquid should cover propolis. Stop the vessel and leave it for eight or ten days to stand in a cool, darkened place. The drug should be shaken several times a day (up to five). After the time has passed, the tincture should be changed to 10-12 hours in the refrigerator. The medicine can be filtered and used. Before use, taking a few drops in proportions of 1: 1, dilute the tincture with water. Moisten the turundum (from cotton wool or gauze) in a liquid and place for about twenty minutes in a sore ear. If a burning sensation appears, it is better to remove the drug.
- Well behaved turundas, soaked in juice of onions, put for half an hour in a sore ear.
- To remove the pain and inflammation will help a fresh piece of geranium. It can also be used in the form of a crushed gruel, which is laid in the ear canal, and in the form of a rolled tubule. But for this, the folded sheet is cut at a right angle and placed inwards by a cut. Further on the ear, it is necessary to put a piece of cotton wool and press it with a handkerchief tied on the head. Leaflets periodically change.
- You can take a mixture of two oils: linseed and onion. Apply it on cotton wool and put it in your ear for three hours. After the specified term the swab should be changed, having put a new portion of oil.
- For compresses, the prepared tincture from the root of the aura of the marsh is also suitable. Shredded raw materials (gram ten), pour 100 ml of vodka and put in a darkened cool place for ten days. Every day, three to four drops should be dripped into both ears. At the same time this tincture is taken orally (inside) 30 drops.
Nevertheless, it should be noted that, as it were, methods of alternative medicine seemed to be safe, they should be used only with the permission of the attending physician and, often, together with medical preparations.
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Treatment of ear pain with colds at home
When the diagnosis is made - otitis - only when a severe disease is detected, the otolaryngologist can refer the patient to inpatient treatment. In most cases, the treatment of pain in the ear for a cold at home.
At the same time, the doctor must fully write down the regimen of taking medications and corresponding procedures. It is quite widely used in the treatment of the pathology in question to apply the methods and formulation of alternative medicine. It should only be remembered that all these activities can be carried out at home only with the permission of your doctor. So the patient will save himself from many problems and complications, and will come to a full recovery in a shorter period of time.
It is not superfluous to know a number of medical recommendations, the use of which will avoid a number of mistakes in treatment, preserving their health.
- Heating compresses can be used if the temperature of the body does not exceed 38 ° C.
- In the treatment, you can use oil applications, but they are less practical. For example, preheated camphor or vegetable oil. But the warming effect of such compresses lasts longer. It can be kept until six o'clock.
- Before entering into the ear aperture of the drug, it is desirable to wash the cavity with 3% hydrogen peroxide solution. The procedure is carried out lying on its side. In the ear, seven to eight drops of liquid are injected. It is necessary to lie down for about ten minutes. If both ear are affected by inflammation, a similar procedure is performed for the other ear canal.
Drops of pain in the ears with colds
In stopping the problem under consideration, one of the first places is given to topical drugs, used in the form of a solution, which is buried in the ear.
Drops from pain in the ears with a cold have different pharmacodynamics, therefore, based on the existing concomitant symptoms, one or the other is painted. The most effective drug in the existing clinical picture is prescribed only by the attending physician.
These drugs may have vasoconstrictive, anti-inflammatory and / or analgesic characteristics.
When otitis, the medicine is administered in a warm form using a medical pipette. The temperature of the liquid should be about 36 - 37 degrees.
Most often, when diagnosing otitis, doctors prescribe drops that have antibacterial and analgesic qualities: albucid, otypax, anauran, sfradex, otinum, tsipromed.
Otium is usually prescribed in the inflammatory process affecting the middle ear, as well as in the case of acute catarrhal inflammation of the external tissues. Active active compound of the drug is choline salicylate, which allows to have an analgesic and anti-inflammatory effect on the body.
It is recommended to use the medicinal product in question three to four times throughout the day, injecting three to four drops into the diseased ear.
The very procedure of instillation is simple, but it should still be followed. The patient lies on his side, his ear up. In this position, the digging is performed, after which the person two more - three minutes must lie down.
Do not use these drugs if the patient has an increased sensitivity to one or more of the components of the drug being administered, as well as if there is perforation of the tympanic membrane.
Otypax is used to stop the catarrhal manifestations of any etiology. Moreover, in addition to anesthetic and anti-inflammatory action, this medicine also possesses characteristics that allow to destroy pathogenic microorganisms, to delay their reproduction and development.
Like the previous drops, it is used topically, twice - three times a day for four to five drops. This drug has practically no contraindications, therefore it is admitted to treatment even infants.
Contraindications should only include hypersensitivity to the components of the medicine, as well as the presence of mechanical damage to the tympanic membrane, the possibility of developing an allergic reaction to lidocaine.
Despite the fact that otipax is not an antibiotic, it is actively and effectively used in the treatment of otitis media.
Sofredex can be found on pharmacy shelves, both in the form of ointments and drops. The pharmacological characteristics of sofradex allow us to overcome the symptoms of otitis of any etiological source. Has a wide spectrum of action: a strong antibiotic, effectively damaging pathogens, anti-inflammatory and antihistamine.
Sofradeks equally effectively acts on both gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria.
The medicine is injected into the diseased ear two to three drops three times - four times during the day.
The drug has a number of contraindications, which include increased intolerance to the organisms of the patient components of the drug, viral or fungal infections, perforation of the tympanic membrane, tuberculosis.
Therefore, the suffragex can be used only for the purpose of the treating doctor, eliminating all contraindications. The duration of the treatment course is no more than seven days.
Anauran drops, due to their composition (polymyxin B, neomycin, lidocaine) effectively suppress the reproduction and further development of both gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria. Thanks to the lidocaine present in it, they have analgesic characteristics.
Anauran is indicated for use for no more than seven days. It is recommended to administer four to five droplets in the ear canal, making from two to four approaches a day.
Contraindication to use is the increased sensitivity of the patient's body to the components of the drug, including lidocaine.
Drops of zipromed, the active substance of which ciprofloxacin, act on the pharmaceutical market as an ophthalmic preparation, but, nevertheless, it showed itself perfectly well with the coping of otitis. Has an antimicrobial effect, effectively affecting a wide range of gram-negative microflora, both active and passive.
The recommended course of therapy with tsipromed should not exceed 14 days. To achieve the desired result, the patient receives five drops three times throughout the day. After instillation, the ear canal should be covered with a cotton swab.
The medicine is inadmissible for use in cases of intolerance to human organisms of its components.
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Preventing pain in the ears with colds
When the first signs of a cold appear, a person instinctively tries to get rid of them faster, without allowing complications and worsening of the condition. Prevention of pain in the ears with colds, for both adults and young patients is absolutely identical.
- Pain symptoms in the ear can be a consequence of an infectious disease, such as influenza. Therefore, you should protect your body and the body of the child from infection. This is especially true in the period of epidemics and in the spring - autumn period, when the number of diseases increases dramatically.
- It is necessary to maintain your immune status at a high level. To do this, it is necessary to regularly temper the body, to properly and fully feed it, introducing enough vitamins and microelements into your diet.
- If necessary, you should get vaccinated against especially dangerous viral infections.
- It is necessary to abandon bad habits, not to allow passive smoking, weakening the body. This is dangerous for both children and non-smokers.
- Avoid irritants that can cause an allergic reaction. This fact also removes the strength of the body to resist disease.
- It is advisable to feed Grudnikov with breast milk until one year of age. Breast milk has antibodies that can protect the baby from a cold and a number of infectious lesions.
- It is necessary to regularly carry out a wet cleaning and airing in a dwelling.
- When the first signs of a cold appear, it is worth to visit a doctor and immediately begin treatment.
Prognosis of pain in the ears with colds
Probably, it is almost impossible to find a person who completely ignores the pathological symptoms of the common cold, including the pain syndrome in the ear. Therefore, the prognosis of pain in the ears with a cold, in the vast majority, is favorable.
It is unlikely that there will be at least one person who has never suffered from the symptoms of a cold in his life. Especially pains for the cold in the ears. In the acute course of the disease, its intensity is very difficult to bear. Therefore, with the slightest suspicion of the infection of the body with an infection, it is necessary to take adequate measures. But that independent treatment does not lead to a worsening of the situation and the complication of the disease, it is necessary to come to a consultation with a specialist in a timely manner. In our case, this is a doctor - an otolaryngologist. And remember, your health is in your hands!