Air Travel Ear Plugs
Middle ear infection is an infection that occurs behind the eardrum, in the middle part of the ear. While it can happen in people of all ages, it mainly affects children. The medical term for middle ear infection is otitis media. Middle ear infection is the most common childhood illness treated by pediatricians. It usually develops a few days after a child has a cold or the flu. Half of all children will have at least one middle ear infection while they’re growing up, most often before age 3.
Ear infections are among the most common illnesses of early childhood. Three out of four children have had at least one ear infection by age 3, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. The medical term for middle ear infections is otitis media. Otitis refers to inflammation of the ear, and media means middle. Although ear infections worry parents and make children uncomfortable, take heart. Most ear infections clear up on their own within a few days, and most children stop having ear infections once they reach school age.
The ear is responsible for hearing and balance and is made up of three parts — the outer ear, middle ear, and inner ear. Hearing begins when sound waves that travel through the air reach the outer ear, or pinna, which is the part of the ear that’s visible. The sound waves then travel from the pinna through the ear canal to the middle ear, which includes the eardrum (a thin layer of tissue) and three tiny bones called ossicles. When the eardrum vibrates, the ossicles amplify these vibrations and carry them to the inner ear.
The severity of the symptoms and the age of the patient determines the likelihood of success of antibiotic treatment. Acute otitis media in children below the age of 2 have a poorer prognosis and are associated with an increased number of recurrences of acute otitis media as well as the development of otitis media with effusion in 35% after 6 months. Acute otitis media in older age groups usually resolves on its own without antibiotic treatment.
Bacteria reach the middle ear through the lining or the passageway of the eustachian tube and can then produce infection, which causes swelling of the lining of the middle ear, blocking of the eustachian tube, and migration of white cells from the bloodstream to help fight the infection. In this process the white cells accumulate, often killing bacteria and dying themselves, leading to the formation of pus, a thick yellowish-white fluid in the middle ear. As the fluid increases, the child may have trouble hearing because the eardrum and middle ear bones are unable to move as freely as they should. As the infection worsens, many children also experience severe ear pain.
The main symptom is an earache. It can be mild, or it can hurt a lot. Babies and young children may be fussy. They may pull at their ears and cry. They may have trouble sleeping. They may also have a fever.When fluid builds up but does not get infected, children often say that their ears just feel plugged. They may have trouble hearing, but their hearing usually returns to normal after the fluid is gone. It may take weeks for the fluid to drain away.
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Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – What is Middle Ear Infection?
letting in the air or out the air in this situation?
When you travel to higher altitudes, such as when you ride in an airplane, the air pressure decreases. This causes the air pressure outside your body to be less than the pressure inside your body. As a result, your ears feel plugged up. You might have to yawn or chew gum to make your ears “pop.” What you are really doing is letting in the air with the low pressure into your ear’s eustachian tube.
I don’t understand the last sentence, As far as I know, you need to let the air inside your ear out of your body to decrease the air pressure in your ear.
But it seems the sentence says the opposite thing– letting in the air outside into your ear.
What does the sentence mean?
It simply means ‘equalizing the pressure’. When you maneuver your jaw or swallow etc. you are opening up your Eustachian tubes to allow the pressure to equalize on either side of your eardrums.
I agree that it is somewhat misleading to say ‘letting in the air with low pressure’; it’s a bit like saying ‘letting in the cold’ instead of ‘letting out the heat’. Absence of pressure is not an attribute, just as absence of heat is not an attribute. They are both absences of physical characteristics, just as the ‘dark’ of the night is the absence of light: the night doesn’t have more ‘dark’ than the day, it simply has less ‘light’.
Ear Tubes by MD Kiosk
