A few months ago I started having problems with a closed ear. The doctor saw that the ear canal was clean and advised to use a nasal spray for six weeks and to rinse my nose with salt water. Nevertheless, my ear did not open, but it became deaf. Ten days ago I got an ear infection. The pain in the ear is almost gone thanks to ear drops, but it still hurts around my ear. How do I get rid of these complaints?
Joris Bartstra, journalist with a medical degree.
I would have an ENT doctor look at this. You have a middle ear infection: an inflammation in the space behind the eardrum. This is common in children. Their Eustachian tube is still very narrow and easily clogged. If that tube is closed, a vacuum is created in the middle ear. This sucks on the mucous membranes, as it were, filling the space with mucus. This causes hearing loss. If a bacteria enters the mucus, a nasty inflammation arises, causing the eardrum to burst, the dirt runs out and the whole can heal again. You have long-term complaints, get a middle ear infection, recovery is not forthcoming and you have a strange pain around the ear. Then you have to think about a different cause than in children. One possible cause is a cholesteatoma, a type of cyst of skin cells in the middle ear that grows slowly and can be surgically removed.
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