Homeopathy

Homeopathic remedies are based on the primary clinical symptoms of otitis media. According to the rule of similarity, one takes exactly the same homeopathic remedy that, if a healthy person were to take it, would cause exactly these symptoms in a healthy person. Thus, depending on the specific symptoms of middle ear inflammation, the following homeopathic remedies can be used: Homeopathy cannot replace conventional medicine.

Whether there is a significant effect is highly questionable. It can rather serve the moral support of the affected persons and the subjective feeling of health than to eliminate organic causes for pathological conditions.

On one side red, strong and stabbing pain ?
Chamomilla
Severe and sudden pain, high fever? Aconitum
Severe pain, fever, red head, very sensitive hearing? Belladonna
Purulent, eardrum damaged ?
Silicea
Fever, creeping development, cold ? ferrum phosphoricum
Tough nasal secretion, red ear, stabbing pain ? Pulsatilla.

The duration of the middle ear infection depends on the type of infection.

Acute otitis media varies in duration depending on whether it is bacterial or viral. In the first phase of middle ear inflammation, the inflammatory phase, severe pain and fever occur. This usually lasts 2 to 3 days.

Viral inflammation usually subsides already at this stage. Bacterial inflammation then enters the next phase, the defense phase, which lasts about another five days. This is characterized by a spontaneous eardrum perforation with discharge of pus.

Pain and fever subside here. Antibiotics significantly shorten this phase by killing the bacteria. After about 2 to 4 weeks, the inflammation of the middle ear heals completely.

Chronic inflammation of the middle ear does not heal spontaneously. It is not possible to predict their duration exactly, but they can sometimes last for years. However, they are often an indication for surgery.

How can middle ear inflammation be prevented?

Everyone goes through middle ear infections in the course of their life and especially in childhood. However, there are some things you can do to prevent middle ear infections. Babies should definitely be breastfed for the first three months.

This has a positive effect on the child’s general development and immune system. Smoking in the presence of children should be avoided so as not to impair their development. In general, smoking makes the upper respiratory tract more susceptible to infections and thus also increases the risk of infection-related middle ear infections.

For further prophylaxis, vaccination against influenza and pneumococci is recommended. This helps to prevent flu-like infections. These often cause inflammation of the middle ear.

If you have a cold, decongestant nasal sprays help to ventilate the middle ear better. However, these should not be used for longer than a week. Furthermore, babies who frequently suck on pacifiers seem to suffer more often from middle ear infections.

This could be due to the fact that constant sucking changes the pressure in the ear. However, this assumption has not been confirmed. Soothers can of course transmit infections if they are not cleaned.

With an existing eardrum perforation, the middle ear is more susceptible to acute middle ear infections than with an intact eardrum. To prevent middle ear infection, you should therefore wear hearing protection when showering and bathing. This prevents bath water from entering the ear, which can be infectious.

One of the complications of middle ear inflammation is that it can spread to structures adjacent to the middle ear, such as mastoid cells. The mastoid cells are air-filled bone spaces behind the ear that are covered with mucous membrane. The inflammation, appropriately called “mastoiditis“, is then manifested by pressure pain behind the ear (this region is colloquially known as the mastoid process; in medicine it is called “mastoid”).

In the context of an uncomplicated otitis media, this symptom often occurs as well, but then quickly recedes under treatment.The recurrence of pain after a pain-free interval, accompanied by a strong feeling of illness and fever, then points to the inflammation of the mastoid process, which is still potentially threatening today. This can lead to melting of the bone (medical term: osteolysis) and to the eruption of pus through the bone wall. The consequences are a swelling behind the ear (see swelling behind the ear) and a protruding auricle.

Then imaging procedures such as a computer tomogram (CT for short, an X-ray reconstructed from many slice images) are indicated to determine the extent of the inflammation and to surgically repair it (medically: “mastoidectomy”). If an inflammation of the middle ear does not heal completely, but persists permanently, the result is so-called chronic otitis media (chronic inflammation of the middle ear). This can progress in various ways: In the mesotympanic form (Greek mesos = middle, i.e. a form limited to the middle ear), the inflammation of the mucosa of the tympanic cavity is the most prominent.

Patients suffer from persistent hearing loss and discharge from the ear. The eardrum defect (a perforation), which by definition accompanies chronic inflammation of the middle ear, is typically located centrally. The treatment here consists of surgical closure of the eardrum (a so-called tympanoplasty). As in all chronic cases, it is important to clarify the underlying cause of the poor healing process or the constant recurrence of the middle ear infection (see above). Less common forms of chronic otitis media (chronic inflammation of the middle ear) are tympanic fibrosis, in which connective tissue accumulates in the tympanic cavity behind an apparently intact, whitish thickened eardrum, and tympanosclerosis, in which the long-lasting inflammatory process leads to degeneration and calcification of the connective tissue of the eardrum.