An earache can make your life miserable and bring with it great pain and discomfort. It can impact your ability to do everyday activities, affect your hearing, keep you up at night and if left untended, cause permanent hearing loss. Thankfully, there are a variety of remedies you can use to help numb the pain and hopefully get rid of the earache entirely.
Step 1
Take over-the-counter pain killers such as ibuprofen or Tylenol to reduce pain and inflammation, suggests the Mayo Clinic.
Step 2
Use a decongestant, available from the pharmacy, to reduce pressure in ear passages and sinuses and relieve pain.
Step 3
Add heat in the form of hot compresses or a heating pad to soothe ear pain and reduce swelling offers Mother Nature.com. Make sure the heating pad is on low and if using a hot compress, be sure that you check the water temperature on your arm first to ensure it doesn't burn.
Step 4
Make garlic oil by dropping a few cloves of peeled, raw garlic into extra virgin olive oil and allowing them to soak overnight, if possible. Discard the garlic and pour the oil into a brown dropper bottle. Heat to body temperature in a warm pan of water. Place 2 or 3 drops of warmed oil into the affected ear and cover with a piece of cotton. Repeat throughout the day for pain relief. Garlic is has antibiotic qualities and may heal the earache entirely says Jethro Kloss in his herbal healing book, "Back to Eden."
Step 5
Brew ginger tea using a piece of raw ginger root, suggests Natural-Home-Remedies.org. Boil water and allow ginger root to steep for about one hour. Discard the ginger and pour the cooled mixture into a dropper bottle. Place 2 or 3 drops of the warm mixture in the ear and cover it with cotton. Keep the affected ear turned upward to enable the liquid to stay in the ear.
Step 6
Visit the doctor if these remedies don't do the trick and your earache remains. She may find the cause is wax buildup and flush the ear, or in the event of an infection that has not cleared, prescribe an antibiotic.
Tips and Warnings
- Combine several of these treatments together but don't use various liquids in the ear at the same time. Give each treatment time and several doses before moving on to the next.
- Never apply liquids to an ear where you suspect a ruptured eardrum.
Things You'll Need
- OTC painkillers
- Decongestant
- Heating pad
- Warm compress
- Olive oil
- Garlic
- Ginger
References
- "Back to Eden", Jethro Kloss, 1972
- MotherNature.com: Earaches
- Mayo Clinic: Earache
