Let's talk about itchy ears if you're thinking to yourself right now i have a deep itch within my
ears and it's killing me while you have found the right video because we are going to learn
all about ichiya treatment we're going to learn how to stop those itchy ears and we're going to
learn about the best ear drops and things to use to stop itchy ears so let's begin so welcome to
my channel if you haven't been here before we talk about everything healthcare everything medical to
keep you healthy and happy also if you find any of the information helpful in this video i would
really appreciate it if you slap that like button give it a like because it's going to help me
it's going to help the video it's going to help the video grow so more and more people can view it
so next thing i'm going to say is please don't forget in the description as well we do
chapter the entire video so if you want to find any specific piece of information
please feel free to click it however as i would always say i'd always advise you to watch the
entire video that way you're going to become an itchy ear treatment pro let's begin okay so before
i started filming this video i thought to myself what's the best way to present this information
because there are loads of different reasons for each ears and the treatment obviously differs
depending on what type of itchy ear you're having so i thought to myself probably the best way to
do it if we mix them all together talk about each eat each different type of itchy ear and
its treatments and then to work our way through them now before we begin please do remember i
understand itchy ears are super super itchy okay they can be caused by many different reasons but
please remember try and stay away from itching them because it's just going to make things worse
it's just going to cause this feedback loop that makes this work you can keep itching them and also
please remember if you are itching inside your ear canal please please please i'm gonna say please
again please do not put anything in your ears don't put earbuds in your ears don't put anything
in your ears okay because you're gonna be at a high risk of rupturing your eardrum and believe me
it does happen we see patients day in day out with rush of their eardrums and this can be very
problematic and it can make things so difficult to treat if you rub your eardrums so please
please stay away from the earbuds and don't put anything in there okay so let's start
with scenario number one probably one of the most common reasons for itchy ear is an ear infection
and ear infections can be caused by bacteria viruses and fungi okay all three of them can
cause there you can be at a higher risk of getting an ear infection for example if you've just had
a cold if you just have the flu okay all of these can increase your risk of having an ear infection
post or pre or during having those illnesses okay also with regards to a fungal infection for
example usually the symptoms consist of you know itchy ears if it's flaking as well around there
possibly behind the earlobe as well inside the ear sometimes you get flaking you might even get
a bit smelly discharge a bit of oozing sometimes that happens that can also happen with bacterial
infections and viral infections actually they all have some very similar symptoms to be quite
honest with you and the best way for us to check an ear infection is to get the otoscope
as you can see here we get the otoscope have a look in the ear okay and see exactly what's going
on we always like to look in both ears that way we can compare our contrast because if you're telling
me your right ear is hurting okay i'm looking at your left ear as well because then i can look
at what your normal ear looks like and compare it to your body okay that's why we always look
at both tears but the reason i brought the office scope out and stretched it this far is to tell you
the most important thing is if you feel like you have an ear infection if you have them sort of
symptoms if it's inflamed around here if it's red if it's it cheaps it's flaky if it's getting worse
if you've just had a cold or flu or anything like that for example you need to speak to a
healthcare professional that is the most important thing for an ear infection causing dry itchy ears
okay the other stuff we're going to talk about you don't need to speak to healthcare pressure usually
but this one is particularly important that you do because you're gonna have to look into it and see
exactly what they need to do for it so in terms of treatments for an ear infection we have loads of
things to our disposal that we can prescribe you for example there's loads of drops that contain
antifungals in them or they contain antibacterials in them or they contain a steroid or they contain
all three for example that you can use in your ear another thing as well that
we sometimes commonly prescribe is for example an antifungal cream especially if you've got
an infection around the back of your earlobes any dryness there any itching any buildup of dry skin
that's building up there sometimes that can be a sign of a fungal infection sometimes we prescribe
an anti-fungal cream for it you can also speak to your pharmacist for some of these creams some
of these drops as well they might be able to sell you them over the counter obviously they're going
to ask a few questions to make sure you're safe and suitable to use it but this depends
on wherever you are in the world the rules and regulations might be different another
thing that i sometimes prescribe for patients especially if they're getting recurrent fungal
infections around the ears and they're getting dandruff as well because they're so closely linked
is sometimes i prescribe them a ketoconazole shampoo that they can use on their scalp and sort
of use around the ear and then wash it off that again has that effect of killing the fungus and
then not returning as well so this can be really effective and it might be something that's worth
mentioning to your healthcare professional as well now moving on to scenario two scenario two
is probably the second most common reason and it's just called right ears and we can get dry ears for
many different reasons some people produce dry earwax for example which puts them at a higher
risk of getting dry ear canals and being dry inside and around it and becoming itchy as a
result of it some people are excessively removing ear wax remember the whole point of earwax is one
to prevent any foreign objects from going in and two to keep the ear canal nice and moist
and hydrated okay now if you're constantly removing it by using an earbud or i don't
know getting it syringed or cleaned all the time you're gonna put yourself by a higher risk of dry
ears okay and when they're dry they become itchy and uncomfortable okay so if this is your
scenario we're gonna talk about what you need to do about it next so in terms of treating dry ears
it's very simple the first thing i'd recommend is olive oil and when i say olive oil i don't mean
the stuff that you can buy from the supermarket the stuff that you cook with the stuff that comes
in nice fancy bottles that we cook with or address our salads with no it has to be the ones that you
buy from the chemist it has to be the ones that are sort of approved for medicinal use that can
be put in the ears okay they come with a dropper and they're filtered like they're filtered load
just to make sure they've got no particles in them so it's safe to put in your ear okay
that's the reason why i'm saying don't use the cooking stuff and i've had loads of questions
loads of comments on the earwax video that we made i don't know six months or a year ago it's
had over a million 1.5 million views it's helping loads of people but this is one of the most common
questions we get on it so i'm making it clear now it has to be the one that you buy from the chemist
don't use the cooking oil at home that's the worst thing you can possibly do it's going to put you at
high risk of getting infections in the future so in terms of using it going at your olive oil from
the chemist then i recommend you use maybe one drop a day or every other day it's completely
fine to begin with if it's very dry you can use it twice a day and then just slowly reduce the dose
at the end of the day it's only olive oil it's just going to keep it moisturized in the area and
when you put it in you want to press the ear a few times like so that way your ear canal will sort
of press in and it will just spread the olive oil nicely through the ear canal making sure it helps
it more you can also use a normal moisturizing cream around the ear or inside just over here as
well if it's dry so that is also an important thing to use some people find petroleum jelly
quite helpful as well behind the ear earlobes just because it stays there for longer and helps to
keep the area hydrated obviously you've checked with your healthcare professional there it's not a
bacterial fungal or viral infection it's just dry ears and all of these things that are fine to do
okay so moving on to scenario three which is all about hearing aids certain people who have
hearing aids can get dry ears as a result of it this can usually be due to the pressure and the
friction that it's causing we're actually just poorly fitted all of these can cause dry itchy
ears now in terms of what to do if you do have a hearing aid first of all i'd highly advise
you to speak to your healthcare professional or the place where you get your hearing aids
and make them aware that you're having trouble with it just so they can check the fittings to
make sure the fittings are correct sometimes it's mainly usually due to a poor fitting hearing aid
that's causing it another thing that you can do though is dab a little bit of olive oil
for example around the area in the ear not in the ear canal but within the ear sort of area do this
when you're not wearing your hearing aids though you don't want them to get oily so probably best
to do it at night when you take your hearing aids out dab a little bit of olive oil on some
cotton wool and just spread it around the area and then just leave it there in the morning just
wipe it off like i said you don't want to get on your hearing again it's probably going to break
and just cause problems okay so make sure you wipe all clean before you put your hearing aid in again
okay so the next scenario i want to talk about is ear wax blockage look we all produce ear wax some
people produce more than others okay and when the eos gets a bit too much and a bit too thick it can
cause blockage of the area and then it leads to dead skin being left there dead hairs being left
there and all this can potentially then cause some inflammation which can then cause the dry
ears okay so one of the most important things is one don't use earbuds okay like i said do not use
earbuds and ears don't use what ear candles or any of the products out there that suck it or anything
like that don't use any of them you're just at risk of rupturing your eardrum and like i said
it does happen i see patients all the time who've got ruptured eardrums because all it takes is you
put it a little too deep and it's gone through okay your eardrum is very very thin and it's not
like your skin that can basically resist something prodding into it if you go in too deep it's
going to go through and it is a pain it's really difficult for patients when their eardrum bursts
okay so don't put anything in there also just just out of a note we can tell if you use earbuds okay
i've had patients asked me this before can you tell if i've used earbuds yes we can okay when
we look in an ear with the ottoscope we can tell from the way that the wax is deposited in the ear
if you put ear buds in or if you haven't been touching you okay they look very different okay
a natural ear that hasn't been touched compared to an ear that's being cleaned all the time now let's
move on to treatments so in terms of treatment for ear wax blockage the first thing we're going to go
to again is olive oil olive oil is our go-to ear drop okay it's natural it's nice to use it doesn't
cause any problems there are other ear drops as well so for example there's peroxide ones there's
sodium bicarbonate ones but all of them do cause dryness of the ear as well okay whereas olive
oil doesn't cause that dryness of the ear canal so that's the main problem that i have with other ear
drops is that when you use them they cause a real massive dryness of the ear canal and our ear canal
naturally likes to be moist because when it's moist it doesn't cause all these itchiness and
all the problems that we get so you're going to use olive oil like i said in my previous video if
you haven't seen that video on how to treat earwax i'd probably say go and watch that because i don't
want to make this video too long so i'll leave a link to that up here and the description below
so watch that on how to use olive oil properly in terms of treating ear wax and when to get medical
help for it as well okay it's important that we're treating it because if we let it build up it can
put us at risk of infections and then causing all the other issues as well with it so the
next scenario that i want to discuss are swimmers ears okay swimmer's ears is basically what we call
for a titus externa this is when water goes into our ear canal and it gets trapped in there when
it's trapped it puts a higher risk of bacterial infections fungal infections all the types of
infections that then cause the itchiness and the dryness now when you have swim here for example
it's quite common as well to get facial pain you might get a bit of vertigo a bit of dizziness
these are all quite common with it as well because this whole area is responsible for our balance
so it can cause a lot of other symptoms as well now in terms of treating swimuzia usually it goes
away on its own when the water just comes out on its own but in terms of treating that itchiness
we're not going to go to olive oil for this but there are products out there that you can buy
over the counter that contain acetic acid and for those of you who know acetic acid is what we use
in vinegar so vinegar has acetic acid and it gives it that smell okay of vinegar that we all know so
well so when you put this spray in you are gonna smell vinegar okay that's a very well-known smell
that we're all used to however please remember this doesn't mean go and buy vinegar and put
in your ear please do not do that whatsoever it has to be the medicinal product of acetic acid
which is a medical grade okay so the acetic acid sprays can be really really helpful for reducing
that itchiness and potentially reducing the chance of it becoming infected however if it does become
infected you are going to need to speak to your healthcare professional in terms of infections
we're talking about if the pain is getting worse if the itching is getting worse if it's becoming
red it's any discharge you know anything like that if it's spreading if you feel like it's
coming it's spreading it towards your mouth and face as well all these can be decided infections
getting worse and you need to speak to your healthcare professional so please remember that
okay and the final scenario is patients who have hay fever and x-men other skin conditions okay
some of these kinds of patients do often get more itchy ears and symptoms like that around the ears
so i do have quite a few videos on these topics already on hay fever and allergies and things
like that i'm gonna leave it up here and also an eczema and what you can do about it as well which
again i'm gonna leave up here these are quite common and if you do have these sort of conditions
it is worth speaking to a healthcare professional about in terms of treatments because it might need
stronger more aggressive stuff okay so we're now done with scenarios and treatments the next thing
i want to talk about which is something that i'm really interested about is preventative stuff so
what you can do to prevent yourself from getting itchy ears in the first place because there's
loads of things that we can do that are going to help so let's begin okay so tip number one is all
about drying your ears look you need to make sure that when you come out the shower or the bath or
the swimming pool or whatever you are drying your ears nicely okay so make sure you get your towel
rubbing into it nicely okay you don't need to rub partially but just get into every single bit or
just get a clean tissue and rub in and around it don't put it deep into your ear at all anything
like that just rub in and around it and behind the earlobe and everything so it's nice and dry this
is really going to help at preventing you from getting those dry itchy ears now moving on to tip
number two this is something that i really like to tell patients to do and like i said earlier
it's all about olive oil look if you're someone who always has dry itchy ears and it's not caused
by any infections or anything like that or if you produce a lot of earwax we need to look at
prophylactically using olive oil so like i said using one drop every other day or once you come
out the shower or anything like that can really really help keep the area moist and prevent you
from getting those dry itchy ears in the first place and this can be really really helpful for
a lot of patients now moving on to tip number three if you're someone who always seems to get
water stuck in their ears even after they come out of the shower for example not even from swimming
look at investing in some earplugs okay getting some earplugs and pop them in before you go for
a shower or before you go swimming can make a massive difference it's really going to help
reduce the chance of getting those dry itchy ears i'm moving on to the final tip this may not apply
to a lot of people but if you're wearing any earrings look at potentially not wearing them
for a while see if that improves the symptoms certain patients are allergic to the metals and
certain earrings which then cause the itchiness so give it a go trying it without the earrings for a
bit and see if that improves your symptoms at all now with every video i always go through scenarios
where you should speak to your health care professional in terms of dry achievers the things
that we need to look out for is one any bleeding or discharge from the ears you need to speak to
your healthcare professional if you're having any vertigo so any dizziness anything like that
speak to your healthcare professional and if you've had any loss of hearing any change in
hearing or anything like that you need to speak to your healthcare professional okay if you
feel like the symptoms get worse and they're not improving again speak to your healthcare make sure
it's super important that you're aware of this make sure you speak to them because your health
is the most important thing so it looks like we've come to the end of this week's video i really hope
that you found this information helpful you're now a bit of a dry ear itchy ear pro so let us
know what you found helpful leave a comment below and if you've got any of your own tips
as well please leave a comment because i'd love to read it and i'm sure everyone watching this video
would love to as well as i always said at the end of every single video always remember that you're
awesome and i will see you next week hey guys thanks for watching this week's video make sure
to click that like follow or subscribe button now to stay up to date with new weekly videos