Some of The Traumatic Ear Problems Which You Make to Yourself!

Don't Touch Your Ear Too Much!

Some ear diseases are caused by patients' mixing or traumatizing their own ears. The external auditory canal cleans itself and has an antiseptic "Serumen - Earwax" secretion. If the external ear canal or eardrum undergoes mechanical trauma, different problems may arise, such as external ear canal infection, impacted serumen, foreign body forgetting, eardrum trauma or puncture.

Impacted serumen

Impacted serum is probably the most common thing to know, as a result of the insertion of a cotton swab into the external ear canal, the earwax squeezes in the external ear canal as a result of the accumulation of earwax inside and the absence of natural cleansing. Earwax can accumulate spontaneously. It is easier to develop an impacted serumen in patients particularly with narrow and hairy external canal, dry and dark earwax.

How can you handle your ear membrane with your finger?

Causes of  eardrum perforation

The eardrum can be perforated by pressure trauma, explosion and very loud noise; it may also be punctured due to the emergence of middle ear inflammation during simple upper respiratory tract infections.

Damage to the eardrum of vacuum ear cleaning! - Ttraumatic eardrum perforation

People in many different ways can harm their own ears themselves. For example, you can pierce your own eardrum with your finger ... "After the shower, I tried to clean my ear with my finger and my ear was in my ear as soon as I took the pain ..."

By placing your finger firmly in the outer ear canal, if you pull your finger quickly outward, you actually apply the vacuuming effect or negative pressure on your eardrum. I have already written how you can do damage to the eardrum of vacuum ear cleaning (!) devices.

Do not insert the cotton swab into the external auditory canal

In fact, our ears have a secretory production and cleaning system in order to protect themselves against water and outdoor conditions. In particular, attempting to clean this external ear canal secretion can cause damage in many different ways. Generally, we see patients with external ear canal trauma with a cotton swab. Cotton ear swabs are especially designed for the cleaning of the curved areas of the auricle.

A foreign object in the ear - Cotton swab

A foreign object in the ear - Cotton swab

I've seen patients who forget the cotton swab in his ear and hold the phone to his ear while damaging the eardrum, even placing a cotton swab to the outer ear canal, and again forget about it. I also had a cotton ball on the outer ear and there was a patient waiting for months and infection. In the above photo, the patient comes with a complaint of congestion in his ear and cotton of the ear swab is seen which closes the outer ear canal. A few months of exposure to the eardrum can cause hearing loss and intermittent external ear infection.

External ear and eardrum trauma with cotton swab

External ear trauma with cotton swab - Eardrum trauma with cotton q tip

In the above photo, the upper part of the eardrum and the lower inner part of the external auditory canal, hemorrhagic areas due to traumatization with the ear swabs are seen.

How to clean your ear?

The answer to the question of how to normally clean the ear According to the American Ear Nose Throat Academy, in a person with normal eardrum and external ear canal, hold lukewarm water in both external ears in the bath, remove the water by tilting your ear on both sides, then lower the hair dryer. You can use it 1-2 min at the setting, dry out the moisture inside your outer ear.

Recurrent long-term external ear trauma: Chronic external ear infection

External ear infection due to long time finger trauma - Otitis externa

In the above photo, the external ear entrance of a patient with an external auditory canal is seen. Infection by finger and finger due to external ear canal infection is observed. Depending on the eardrum stick of the patient's outer ear canal, the external auditory secretion of the external ear canal is started with the external otitis externa (otitis externa) due to scratching of the skin of the external ear canal, The traumatization of the outer ear entrance region was started.

External ear infection (otitis externa) causes

I would also like to briefly answer the following questions about external ear infection:

External ear infection is seen in people who are usually living in humid areas, the external ear canal often occurs in those who come into contact with water and in those who are very traumatizing in an effort to clear the external ear canal. This infection may occur due to damage to the ear barrier or to direct trauma.

Inflammation of the outer ear is infectious: especially those caused by fungi can be transmitted from one person to another very rarely. However, other microbes can be transmitted through the cotton swab by transferring from ear to ear.

How many days of inflammation of the external ear lasts: With appropriate treatment, recovery is usually observed within a few days.

Drugs used in external ear infections: Generally, topical drip application is sufficient. Rarely, oral antibiotics are required.

All of the above mentioned diseases and adverse conditions have emerged as a result of the misapplication of the patients themselves.

I suggest to you, leave your ears comfortable, let it leave you comfortable!  

Murat Enoz, MD, Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgeon - ENT Doctor in Istanbul

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