What to do when having otitis?

What is otitis? Otitis is an inflammation within the ear which is easy to recognise by several symptoms. While facing otitis there are a few things you can do by yourself to reduce the pain and stimulate the healing process. If you experience trouble hearing, it is advised to make an appointment with you GP. More about this further on in this article.

What is otitis?

What is otitis? Otitis is an inflammation within the ear, most commonly caused by an infection. Patients with a bad immune system are more vulnerable for viruses. The virus can easily enter the body and cause otitis. Especially children are more vulnerable for this infection. Another vulnerable group are adolescents with glandular fever. The most common symptoms are:

Symptoms:

• High fever
• Pain in the ear
• Sore throat
• A cold
• Distorted hearing
• Tinnitus
• Problems holding balance
• Pressure differences within the ear

What to do against otitis?

Otitis is usually not a serious condition. It rarely happens that someone gets permanent hearing loss after this infection. To decrease the level of pain and to increase the healing process there are some things you can do yourself.

What can you do yourself?

• Drink a lot of water
• Take a painkiller
• Clear your head from the pressure differences
• Tilt your head to your infected ear

It's important to drink a lot of water when having otitis since it brings down the fever and helps to remove toxins from the body. Painkillers help to reduce the pain and slow down the infection. If you want to try to clear the pressure differences within your ear it might be smart to only do this when it isn't painful. When lying in your bed, it might help to lie your infected ear on your pillow. The reason behind this is that there might fall some 'waste' out of your ear, so cleaning your pillow is recommended!

What can your general practitioner do?

• Prescribe painkillers
• Prescribe anti-inflammatory agents
• Prescribe antibiotics
• Refer you to the hospital

The effect of painkillers is obvious, they 'kill' the pain. Your GP can also prescribe you anti-inflammatory agents; those have almost the same effect as antibiotics but cause the virus or bacteria to be resistant against these drugs. When otitis is causing a lot of pain or if there is the posibility of hearing loss, your GP will prescribe antibiotics. This drug should heal your infection within 10 days, but always finish your cure. In some cases you might be reffered to the hospital, for example if you have a high fever for a long time. But luckily this rarely happens.

Sources: www.todio.nl