By Leah Lewis

Imag­ine the ex­cru­ci­at­ing pain of a toothache, but in­stead of it be­ing in­side of your mouth, it is in­side of your ear and even down the side of your neck. An ear­ache can tru­ly be de­bil­i­tat­ing, and al­though it more fre­quent­ly oc­curs in chil­dren, it can hap­pen to just about any­one, and here’s why.

Pain in the ear is usu­al­ly the re­sult of a bac­te­r­i­al in­fec­tion tak­ing place in an­oth­er part of the body which al­so af­fects the ear. For in­stance, sore throat, ton­sil­li­tis, si­nusi­tis, or even the com­mon cold can lead to an ear­ache. How­ev­er, ear­aches are not al­ways caused by an in­fec­tion, but can be brought about by oth­er means such as, the buildup of ear­wax which may be­come hard, wa­ter trapped in the ear, al­ler­gic re­ac­tions and more.

For this rea­son, an ear­ache may not nec­es­sar­i­ly re­quire an­tibi­otics to bring about re­lief of its painful symp­toms, and on­ly your physi­cian can tru­ly de­ter­mine the cause of the pain. But when that pain brings tears to your eyes and you’re wait­ing for med­ical care or for an­tibi­otics to work (if your doc­tor rec­om­mends them), you can def­i­nite­ly re­ly on the fol­low­ing home reme­dies to give you some much need­ed re­lief.

Hy­dro­gen Per­ox­ide

Hy­dro­gen per­ox­ide is an ex­cel­lent an­ti­sep­tic that has been used as a nat­ur­al rem­e­dy for ear­aches for ages. Not on­ly does it help to kill harm­ful bac­te­ria in the case of an ear in­fec­tion, but it al­so helps great­ly in the re­moval of hard­ened ear wax by soft­en­ing the wax to al­low for its nat­ur­al elim­i­na­tion. To use this method, tilt the head side­ways or lie down with the trou­bled ear fac­ing up­wards. Add 2-3 drops of hy­dro­gen per­ox­ide in­to the ear canal (the 3 per cent so­lu­tion is fine for this pur­pose). You will hear it fiz­zle for a lit­tle while, and it just may hurt de­pend­ing on the sever­i­ty of the in­fec­tion, but leave it to sit for about 5 min­utes. Then, tilt the head up­wards or in the op­po­site di­rec­tion with a piece of cot­ton placed on the out­side, and let the liq­uid run out. Re­peat this 2-3 times dai­ly for re­lief. If the pain per­sists for more than 2 days, you may cer­tain­ly need to see your doc­tor. Do not ap­ply hy­dro­gen per­ox­ide in­side of the ear if the eardrum is rup­tured.

Cana­di­an Heal­ing Oil

Avail­able at most phar­ma­cies, this com­pound has been used through­out many gen­er­a­tions for its mul­ti­ple heal­ing prop­er­ties. Cana­di­an Heal­ing Oil is made up of tur­pen­tine oil, birch tar oil and cam­phor oil, the com­bi­na­tion of which pro­duces the seem­ing­ly mirac­u­lous ben­e­fit of pain re­lief when ap­plied ex­ter­nal­ly or tak­en in­ter­nal­ly, since it both re­duces in­flam­ma­tion and kills bac­te­ria. When used for ear­aches, it al­so helps to loosen/break up hard­ened ear­wax and al­low for its nat­ur­al re­moval. To use this method, place the bot­tle of oil in­to a cup of very warm wa­ter un­til it too be­comes warm. Tilt the head side­ways with the af­fect­ed ear fac­ing up­wards and us­ing a drop­per, ap­ply 2-3 drops of the warm oil (not hot) in­to the ear canal. Let this sit for about 5 min­utes be­fore bring­ing the head back to its up­right po­si­tion. Place a piece of cot­ton or lint loose­ly on the out­side of the ear to al­low for a neat run off, and re­peat twice dai­ly. Once again, you should not use this method if the eardrum is rup­tured.

Hot or cold com­press

For tem­po­rary, but im­me­di­ate re­lief of ear pain, a hot or cold com­press ap­plied to the out­side of the ear, be­hind the ear and to the neck can sure­ly do the trick. It is up to you to choose which tem­per­a­ture works for you best, or you can opt to al­ter­nate be­tween hot and cold. To do this, soak a clean tow­el in hot wa­ter, drain the ex­cess wa­ter and ap­ply to the skin of the af­fect­ed area as hot as can be tol­er­at­ed with­out of course, dam­ag­ing the skin. Leave on for 5-minute in­ter­vals, and re­peat as nec­es­sary. On the con­trary, for a cold com­press, an ice pack can be used, wrapped in a clean tow­el and ap­plied to the af­fect­ed area. Be care­ful not to fall asleep with ei­ther com­press over your ear.

If your ear­ache is ac­com­pa­nied by dizzi­ness, ooz­ing flu­id, fever or hear­ing loss, you should def­i­nite­ly seek im­me­di­ate med­ical at­ten­tion. For less se­ri­ous cas­es though, I can con­fi­dent­ly share that the reme­dies above should give you the help that you need.

Best wish­es on your jour­ney

to bet­ter health.