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A man, circa 2017, was admitted to the
emergency room after collapsing from multiple
seizures and a sharp pain in his left ear.
A couple years later, another woman was taken to the
hospital after noticing some hearing loss and splashes
of blood coming out of one of her ears as well.
Soon, what was originally a minor inconvenience
turned into a battle for their very lives.
Little did they know that behind this brawl
with Death itself was a common household item.
Today’s episode will cover health myths,
As with all medical topics we cover, we recommend speaking
with a doctor about what is best for you and your body
And with that out of the way,
Let’s get into it!
A 31 year old man arrived at the hospital after his fit
of seizures, he told doctors that he had been experiencing
pain and discharge from his left ear for about 10 days,
headaches so severe that he could not help but vomit,
and memory issues like forgetting people’s names.
He continued, saying that he had been experiencing hearing
loss and pain in the same ear for the past 5 years, and
had been treated for 2 major ear infections over that time.
Doctors performed a CT scan on the man’s head and
discovered two abscesses, little pus filled bubbles,
at the base of his skull next to his left ear canal.
This suggested to doctors that his memory issues and headaches
were most likely connected to something in the man’s ear.
The same thing was also likely
the cause of his ear infections.
He was eventually diagnosed with "necrotizing
otitis externa”, which is a soft tissue infection
of the outer ear canal up to the eardrum.
The man underwent a minor surgery to remove the
infected tissue and was given oral and intravenous
antibiotics to treat the infection in the long term.
Lucky for him, he did not suffer any long
term hearing loss, or other complications.
A 37 year old woman, circa 2019, had also been
experiencing hearing loss and a buzzing in
her left ear on and off for a number of years.
She was given antibiotics for an ear
infection, but her symptoms persisted.
She started to notice a brownish discharge coming
from her ears, and not soon after, blood followed.
Returning to her GP, he suggested a hearing test, and found
that she suffered from moderate hearing loss in her left ear.
Being only 37 at the time, she was obviously worried about
this, and saw an ear, nose and throat specialist soon after.
After undergoing a CT scan, the woman discovered
that a bacterial infection was eating away
at the flesh on her skull behind her ear.
She needed surgery to remove the infected tissue, or else
the infection would spread further, and do more damage.
The bacteria had already eaten away at the
bone tissue at the base of her skull leaving
it almost paper-thin according to her doctors.
After removing the infection, she, unlike our
previous case, did suffer from permanent hearing loss
in her left ear, saying that “a firecracker could
go off beside my ear and I’d barely register it”.
Many of us have probably suffered from ear infections before.
Hopefully they’re not as severe as these
folks, however you might be doing the same
things they did before their rude awakening.
Both infections were caused by an impacted
clot of earwax, debris, and cotton.
Grill: Wait, what?
What was that?
I didn’t hear you.
What?
In both cases, the patients had been using cotton
swabs to clean their ears regularly, and at some
point had lodged fibres of cotton in their ear canals.
Then, over the course of years, the cotton collected
dirt and other things you don’t want in your ear, adhered
into a ball with the naturally occurring wax, and became
infected, threatening their hearing, and their lives.
But not all ear infections are the same though!
There are a few different types of ear
infections: Outer, Middle, and Inner.
Outer ear infections, Otitis Externa, are sometimes
thought to be the same as “swimmer's ear” primarily
because they can be caused by stagnant water in one’s ear
canal, however they’re usually caused by a combination
of heat, moisture, and trauma aka cuts or scratches.
Essentially, the tissue within the
ear canal swells and feels blocked.
People often attempt to clear an out ear infection with
the use of a cotton swab, or hydrogen peroxide, however
these solutions will only exacerbate the problem.
The best way to treat an outer ear infection is to have
a clinician carefully clean the infected area, and,
in some cases, make use of a topical antimicrobial.
Occasionally outer ear infections are caused by fungi
or viruses, which require specific treatment, but an
ear specialist will be able to diagnose and treat it.
Our two cases specifically suffered from Necrotizing Otitis
Externa, otherwise known as malignant outer ear infections.
Which is basically the worst case scenario for
this condition, and is defined by the infection
spreading to bone tissue around the initial infection,
which we saw in both of our patients earlier.
Middle ear infections, called Otitis Media, are an
infection of tissue between the eardrum and the inner ear.
They are the most frequent affliction to
young children aside from the common cold.
Middle ear infections can be caused by changes
in air pressure, and sometimes follow a cold.
Severe infections can be recognizable by
rapid onset ear pain, and muffled hearing.
The need for stronger antibiotics and
longer treatment is becoming more common.
In some cases, surgeries like adenoidectomies,
tonsillectomies, and ear tubes are necessary.
If left untreated, middle ear infections can
lead to permanent hearing loss, and other
complications, so medical intervention is required.
Inner ear infections, on the other
hand, are usually not infections at all!
They’re actually an inflammation of the balance centre
of the inner ear, while true infections are usually
only symptoms of greater conditions like meningitis
which make one more susceptible to bacterial infection.
Inflammation of the inner ear can be diagnosed
by rapid onset dizziness, nausea, and vomiting.
Treatment for an inner ear infection depends on whether it is
a true bacterial infection, which they’ll treat with a course
of antibiotics like with any other infection, or whether it
is inflammation, which can be treated with a wide variety
of over the counter drugs that your doctor may recommend.
Well how the hell am I supposed to clean my ears
then, without jamming a stick into my skull, huh?
The cotton swab, or Q-Tip as they are also
referred, has been unanimously condemned
by physicians as a tool to clean our ears.
It literally says, “do not insert
into ear canal” right on the box.
Despite this, the actual original intended use of a
cotton swab was to clean one’s ear . Leo Gerstenzang
invented the first cotton swab after seeing his wife
wrap cotton around toothpicks to clear their baby’s ears.
Like many other things we thought were good in
1920, we’ve learned in the preceding century
that some things are better left in the past.
The reality is that our bodies don’t
require as much upkeep as we think it does.
Dr.
Kris Jatana, assistant professor at the Ohio
State University, tells us that "The ear canal is
self-cleaning, and the cotton-tip applicator actually
works against your ear's natural cleaning mechanism by
pushing the earwax deeper toward the eardrum, where it
essentially gets trapped and can't get out on its own".
In both of our cases earlier, it was fibres of
cotton from a Q-Tip collecting debris and wax inside
their ear canals that led to their infections.
In addition to that, over 12,000 children
under the age of 18 are sent to the ER for
cotton swab incidents in the US per year.
The majority of them were due to children cleaning
their ears themselves, causing cuts, perforations in the
eardrum, and dislocated the bones in their inner ears.
Yikes.
So it’s probably best to limit the amount
of things you’re jamming all up in there.
When it comes to clearing the excess wax on the outside
of your ears, just wiping it away with a tissue wrapped
on your fingertip carefully is more than enough.
Now if you think that you might have an excess of
earwax, your doctor will use a tool called an octoscope
to determine what exactly your problem really is.
If it is a buildup of earwax, and not something
more serious like our cases were suffering,
then they might perform a technique called ear
irrigation to clear out your dirtiest crannies.
They’ll take a syringe filled with water and a
saline solution and shoot a small amount into your
ear canals to dislodge any backed up chaff in there.
It’s pretty uncomfortable, but ear
irrigation is only necessary in severe cases.
It’s significantly safer and less painful than using ear
curettes, small plastic or metal rods used to scrape away
wax, but this technique has the same dangers as using cotton
swabs, so only medical professionals should even attempt it.
There’s a Japanese art form known as Chindogu, which
prides itself for creating objects that “defy explanation”.
They are objects or tools that, despite being perfectly
suited for a specific task, are so unique or unwieldy
to the point that they are almost completely useless.
For example, tiny umbrellas on your shoes, a toilet paper
hat for allergy season, or a wheeled pole that you can
rest your head on if your neck gets tired while you walk.
That’s real, these are real things.
If an item is helpful all the time, and you
use it regularly, then it’s not Chindogu.
Like the cotton swab, there are lots of tools
that defy their original intended purpose, and
more that we’ve decided aren’t even useful at all,
let alone dangerous to use in the first place.
My advice?
If you have any extra cotton swabs lying around, use
them to, I don’t know, build a little cotton cabin,
or use them to clean up the edges on your nail polish.
Just, don’t put them in your ear canal, please.
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