Prophylaxis
A boil in the ear very often occurs when patients want to clean their ear too intensively and only damage the ear in the process. Above all, cotton swabs or washing solutions that are not suitable for the ear should be avoided. If a patient has problems cleaning the ear, he can have the ear professionally cleaned every 6 months by an ear, nose and throat specialist (ENT doctor for short) and thus avoid a boil in the ear.
Prognosis
A boil in the ear is usually a completely harmless inflammation of a small hair. Many patients often have a small boil in the ear, which disappears by itself after a short time. Only in rare cases do complications such as an abscess formation in the ear occur.
However, this happens rather rarely and mostly when the patient ignores the boil for too long or tries to remove it himself, which leads to skin injuries through which the bacteria get into deeper skin layers. In general, boils are not dangerous and in most cases they heal by themselves. They then empty themselves spontaneously, the pus can drain off and the infection also subsides after a few days.
However, there is still a risk that the bacteria will enter the bloodstream. They can then trigger a general blood poisoning (sepsis). A blood poisoning should then be treated by an expert doctor.
Boils in the face have the risk that the germs are carried from there to the brain or spinal cord. The proximity to the brain and spinal cord is also similar in the area of the ear. Here a doctor should be consulted for treatment because of the risk of the bacteria being carried away. A self-treatment, especially the expression of a furuncle, should be avoided at all costs, because it accelerates the spread of the bacteria.
