How to Manage Ear Trouble

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 16, 1915

How to Manage Ear Trouble

THE ears are subject to infection and injury both from within and from without, but they are generally invaded through the nasal passages. Sometimes inflammation spreads from those passages to the ears, and sometimes it is carried or forced there by improper treatment. For example, most persons, when attacked by a cold in the head, blow the nose with quite unnecessary violence. That often drives the germs that are causing the trouble back into the tubes that lead to the ears. In fact, blowing the nose violently during the acute stages of a cold only serves to increase the congestion already present, without by any means giving the relief it seems to promise.

Much harm can also be done by a wrong use of the nasal douche. It is true that the nasal passages must be kept clean, but that can be done by very gentle methods. People who suffer from “recurring” colds should remember that too energetic attacks upon the local trouble may only drive it back to the ears through the Eustachian tubes.

Sometimes the ears of children are attacked from the outside by conscientious and well-meaning mothers. It is astonishing to learn what an apparently sensible woman will do by way of cleaning the inside of a child's ear, and what preposterous instruments she will use. Healthy ears do not need syringing, and only persons who are expert in the operation should perform it on ears that are not in good condition. Hard instruments for cleaning out the ear should never be used. There are little spoons contrived for this purpose in the shops, but no one should buy them; neither should mothers or nurses think of twisting a towel into a spike, or wrapping it round a match, and therewith exploring a child's ear. Earwax is a normal secretion; it is found in all healthy ears, and is not something to be pursued as if it were a disgrace. You can always keep the ears properly clean by using a towel dipped in warm water and wrapped round a finger.

When a small child gets a foreign body into the ear, gentle syringing with warm water will often remove it, and that should always be tried before any other method, unless the object in the ear is something that the water will cause to swell. The attempt to extract the object forcibly may do much injury. No one except an experienced physician or nurse should think of doing that.—Selected.