Ear comfort

'Something for the ear' has always belonged to folk medicine — warm oil, an onion wrap, steam from a herbal infusion. Today's view is more cautious: drip nothing into the ear canal until a doctor has seen the eardrum, and take the tradition as warmth and a wrap from outside, not as drops.

The catalogue lists six native species: elder, great mullein, plantain, wild thyme, lemon balm and common thyme. Mullein is the traditional raw material of oil drops; elder, wild thyme and thyme are the classic 'cold' herbs — in tradition the ear was treated as part of a cold, which anatomically is correct.

Most earaches in children and adults are linked to a cold and pressure in the middle ear and clear on their own within two or three days; what is documented is pain relief with ordinary analgesics and time. Drops of any kind are dangerous with a perforated eardrum, and whether the drum is intact cannot be told at home.

For mullein oil drops there are small studies in childhood middle-ear infection, comparable with anaesthetic drops; but that is a pharmacy product and a condition a doctor had seen first. Cotton buds in the ear canal clean the ear less than they harm it.

Sudden hearing loss in one ear, even without pain, is a condition for an ear specialist within 24–48 hours — some causes can be treated only in time. Severe pain with fever, discharge from the ear, swelling behind the ear or drooping of one side of the face belong with a doctor at once.

Earache in a child under two lasting more than two days, recurrent infections, or tinnitus and dizziness with a balance disturbance belong with a doctor. If the ear is discharging or the drum has ever perforated, drip nothing into it — no oil, no infusion, no 'folk drops'.