Ears problems advice
Ear infections are the primary reasons for foul smelling ears. Ear infections usually start with itching and as the infection spreads from the external ear inwards, it can cause tenderness, ear pain, particularly while chewing, redness or scaling on the skin of the ear and even discharge that maybe watery and smelly. If there is a slight pain on tugging the earlobe, most likely it is Swimmer's ear, one of the types of ear infection, which usually goes away by itself if you keep the infected ear dry and put in some antiseptic ear drops or simply some drops of diluted white vinegar. Allow the antiseptic to remain in the ear for a few minutes keeping the infected ear facing upwards, before allowing it to drain out. Hot compresses applied to the infected ear can help to ease any pain in the ear.
It is very important to correctly diagnose an infected ear. Often simply tugging on the earlobe to check for pain does not help since movement of the outside ear does not bother once the infection has moved to the middle ear. Ensure that the patient gets adequate treatment for the infection since a chronic ear infection can lead to permanent loss of hearing, damage to the nerve system, damage to the surrounding facial tissues and even damage to the brain cells if the infection travels to the brain. Thus it is crucial to get the patient examined by an ear, nose and throat specialist so that the correct steps can be taken to stop the infection from growing.
answered by G M