General information
The earlobe, Latin Lobulus auriculae, has no function in the true sense of the word, just as the auricles and the Darwin hump have become functionless for modern man. The earlobe is located at the lower part of the auricle. It could be described as a fleshy skin lobe, which can either be free (i.e. hanging from the ear) or grown on.
It is relatively insensitive to pain. What an individual ear looks like is determined by genes. The allele for grown-on earlobes is genetically recessive, the one for free dominant.
Thus, the free earlobes are found about twice as often as the grown ones. For the ear and the hearing ability of a human being, however, the shape is of no importance at all. Only in the Middle Ages it was common, especially for newborn girls, to cut the grown ear lobes a little bit so that they were hanging free from the ear, because the population believed that grown ear lobes were witches.
Even today the earlobe plays a big role in social life; quite a few people wear ear studs or rings and other piercings in and on the ear. Furthermore, the earlobe is described as an erogenous zone. Of course, the earlobe, like any part of our body, can cause pain and problems.
Here one can roughly divide into pain caused by piercings or ear holes, i.e. a foreign body in the ear. And those that have genetic causes. But injuries can also cause pain, for example torn earlobes.
Ear jewelry and nickel allergy
Most often, dirty and soiled jewelry is the reason for an inflammation of the earlobe. If this is the case, the jewelry should be removed first of all and cleaned and disinfected very thoroughly. The earlobe itself can be treated with anti-inflammatory ointments.
It is best to allow it to rest for a while and only put the jewelry back on once the inflammation has subsided. If the problem is not the contamination of the jewelry, but the jewelry itself, it is possible that you have a nickel allergy and react sensitively to the ear stud. A nickel allergy is actually relatively harmless, despite its often impressive appearance: the skin becomes inflamed, red and itchy, and a so-called eczema develops.
It is typical of nickel allergy that this skin eczema only occurs at the point where the material has come into contact with the material. However, some people are particularly sensitive and even react allergic to small amounts of nickel contained in food. Nickel may be contained in strawberries, nuts or cigarettes.
The diagnosis of a nickel allergy is usually relatively simple and can be quickly determined from the patient’s medical history. To be on the safe side, an allergy test can be carried out, in which a nickel-containing ointment is applied to a small area of skin and the reaction observed. The treatment consists primarily of avoiding contact with nickel. With regard to ear jewelry, it is advisable to choose only precious metals such as gold or silver or surgical steel. If there are already known cases of nickel allergy in the family, it is advisable to use higher quality jewelry from the outset to prevent an outbreak of the allergy.
