Earaches can be slightly painful to extremely painful. An ear ache is caused by a fluid buildup due to some infection or pressure build up in the middle ear.

Swimming, bathing, allergies or even cleaning your ear with cotton bud can lead to discomfort, bacterial growth and infection in the ear.

Try Some of These Home Remedies for Earache

1. The greatest pain reliever is warm, moist heat around the ear. A warm compress-such as a towel rung out in hot water and pressed against the ear-brings the most immediate relief.
2. After you take a shower or bath; blow dry your ears instead of rubbing them. Soothe the ear with the warm setting of a hairdryer.
3. Puncture a piece of garlic and pour the juice in the ear. Garlic being a natural antibiotic will help to take the pain away.
4. Put some mineral oil (oil derived from a mineral source, such as petroleum, because it is inexpensive and rarely causes allergic reactions) in your ear before going in the water. Wear earplugs while swimming and avoid swimming in dirty waters.
5. Warm few drops of olive oil in a spoon. Using the dropper, put 2-3 drops in each ear after the oil has cooled down. This will help relieve pain.
6. Excessive earwax can also cause hearing problems and aches. Put a capful of hydrogen peroxide in each ear, let it set for a minute or two, and then let it drain out. One drop of alcohol after bathing can also prevent excessive earwax.
7. A hot water bottle wrapped in a towel also makes a comforting pillow for an aching ear.
8. Press a dual-purpose first-aid gel pack that you can warm up in hot water or the microwave on your ear. It will make you feel better.
9. Warm up an oven-safe plate, wrap it in a towel, and rest your aching ear right on it. The plate should be warm and comforting, not hot,
10. Warm mineral oil may soothe a sore ear. Use a dropper to drip the oil in and gently pull the outside of the ear to make sure it goes down.
11. If wind bothers your aching ears, wear a scarf when you’re outside, or put cotton in the opening of the ear, but avoid pushing the cotton down from where you can not retrieve it with your fingers.
12. If your ears hurt when the pressure changes, especially during descent and landing during an airplane flight, chew gum or suck on candy. The chewing or sucking will activate the muscles that send air to your inner ears, when you hear your ears “pop,” you’ll feel better.
13. If chewing doesn’t work, close your mouth, relax your cheek muscles, hold your nose and blow one nostril at a time gently until you feel relief.
14. Bugged by a bug in your ear? Flood the ear till full of alcohol using the ear dropper to kill the bug, then gently fill the ear with water from an ear syringe.

Most common cause of the earache is due to plugged ‘Eustachian’ tubes (a small tube connecting the ear to the nose). If and when your Eustachian tubes become blocked possibility of bacteria buildup or infection, fluid will gather resulting in a painful earache.

Increase in pressure leads to pain, hearing loss, itching and swelling elsewhere in the ear. To avoid ear aches and infections, one should keep the Eustachian tube free of pollutants and irritants and regularly clean the nasal passage.

Ear Wax – Useful As Well As Menace

Our body has given has sufficient means to protect us from problems which we may face in our daily life’s. Ear wax is one those things which is useful and if in excess there can be some trouble for our ears.

It is a liquid which is secreted by cerumen glands which are present only in the ear canals. If it is not treated it can cause deafness, irritation and soreness to your ear which is not at all pleasant.

It is an ‘in-house production’ and has to be cleared on a regular basis. Because once there is accumulation of wax you could see accumulation of problems also.

Symptoms of Having Ear Wax

• Continuous pain in your ears
• Difficulty in hearing
• Happen to hear a ringing noise in your ears
• A feeling as your ears has been blocked due to something

Problems with Ear Wax

• Ear wax can block the ear which can disturb or reduce the hearing capacity
• The bacteria is trapped behind the ear wax leading to infection with graver problems
• There would a short period of deafness while bathing or swimming

Some of The Methods to Remove the Ear Wax

• Ear syringe can be used in your ears to squirt warm water to irrigate the accumulated wax
• Use of olive oil in your ears can smoothen the ear wax to be removed easily
• Avoid using ear buds which can push ear wax inside rather than removing it
• You can also use baby oil which has to warmed up till room temperature and should be done at least twice a day
• Avoid picking or poking your ear canal as this may damage your ears
• By going to a specialist
• You can also use Vaseline which has to be pasted to the outer edges of the ear opening and be cleaned the next day.

Jaw Pain, Ear Aches? You May Have TMD…

TMD stands for the condition Temporomandibular Joint Disorder. Sometimes, you will hear people or doctors refer to TMJ, which is the acronym for the temporomandibular joint, itself.

The jaw joint, in front of the ear, is a ball and socket joint where the lower jaw (mandible) connects with the temporal bone of the skull. Between the two bones is a cartilage pad for cushioning.

The jaw joint can be out of alignment. This gives what dentists call malocclusion, or a bad bite.

Neuromuscular Dentistry

General dentistry, which we are all familiar with, treats teeth and gums, filling cavities, doing crowns, dentures, root canals etc. In recent years, with computers and lasers, dentistry has taken giant strides forward and expanded its conception of how to treat teeth.

One of the new dentistry areas is neuromuscular dentistry, which looks at the jaw joint and its related structures – muscles, nerves, blood vessels, ligaments, and other soft tissue – as well as teeth and gums.

A neuromuscular dentist considers the whole face, head, neck and shoulder area when examining or treating dental problems.

Misaligned Jaw Joint

The causes of TMJ are not fully understood. It can be caused by trauma to the head that knocks the joint out of alignment, moving the cartilage pad or mandible from their correct positions.

Sometimes it’s slowly caused by chronic tooth grinding, and sometimes by misaligned teeth. Genetic factors can play a part, and some systemic diseases and developmental abnormalities. It is thought that a majority of Americans suffer from TMJ to some degree or other, without knowing it.

When the upper and lower teeth do not meet correctly, the jaw muscles become strained. We open and close the jaw so many times each day, and this continual strain builds up in the muscles and related tissues, creating inflammation and swelling. This in turn can compress the nerves in the area, and the result is pain.

TMJ symptoms

The most common and painful symptom is headaches. They are often thought of as migraines, and the sufferer may visit several doctors in search of relief.

A series of pain medications helps temporarily, but does not treat the cause. A physician will not usually look at headaches as having a dental cause.

Each case of TMJ is unique, and there may be any combination of these symptoms:

• Jaw pain
• Neck and shoulder pain
• Earache
• Ringing in the ears
• Popping or clicking sounds in the jaw
• Limited jaw movement
• Tingling in the arms or fingers
• Stiffness and fatigue in the jaw muscles
• Chewing discomfort
• Unexplained dental pain
• Unexplained tooth wear or chipping

It may seem mysterious that a jaw joint problem could cause symptoms in the shoulders or hands or ears. There are several large nerves in the facial areas, with many branches running through the entire head, face, neck, shoulder, and arm areas.

One is the trigeminal nerve, the largest nerve in the body. These nerves with their many branches, register sensation in all the areas where they extend. When one part of a nerve branch is compressed, the resulting pain can be felt by other parts of that nerve.