Simple Cure to the Most Common ENT (Ears, Nose, Throat) Problem: BUGs in your Ears!

Various specialties share common factors that makes them common to other specialization in the realm of the art and science of Medicine. These factors make the practice of medicine overlap with other field of specialization. There are some things though that are totally unique in one specialty of the art of healing.

Take ENT for example or for medical professionals - Otorhinolaryngology or as defined, the field of medicine specializing in the study of the (E)ars, the (N)ose, and the (T)hroat thus the word E.N.T.. But as as I've mentioned above, some specialization overlaps with another, and so the nose and the throat can also be scrutinized and studied under the field of Internal Medicine in general, the field of Surgeons specifically the Plastics and Reconstructive Surgeons and to some extent the field of Dermatologists. But while the nose and the throat can be shared commonly, the Ears are exclusively of the field of ENT. It deals exclusively of the realm wherein no other set of specialized doctors have handled.

There are many afflictions that involves the Ears, but no other more common than the most simple problem - creeping bugs crawling inside your ears. This is not just a nightmare to some arachnophobes or entomophobes but also strikes fear to the ordinary patient who imagines a creepy crawling insect inside your ear canals. If this thought bothers a 'brave' adult patient, just imagine how a child with a bug in his/her ear would feel.

What would you feel?

 So first things first, how would you know that a bug or insect is really inside your ears? Your ear canal actually hosts several cranial nerves that renders it super sensitive to a variety of sensations. Tenderness may be felt due to weather changes or some kind of allergy.

Some signs and symptoms of insects inside the ear canal presents as pain, swelling, crackling or buzzing sounds but the most common symptom is severe pain especially if you keep on poking the insect down your ear canal. In some instances, some biting or stinging sensations may also be experienced. Some may also report certain levels of hearing loss or dizziness.

Note: There are some insects, most notably cockroaches (which is the most common insect that crawls inside most people's ears by the way) have spikes in their legs that lies in the opposite direction of the ear canal which makes them unable to crawl back. And so they tend to only move forward and burrow deeper  into your ear canal.

Close-up picture of a cockroach leg showing spikes making them unable to crawl back once stucked into the ear canal.

What can you do as first-aid?

Basically, there is no other way of removing an insect stuck inside your ear other than manually removing it using an alligator forcep or any elongated, blunt instrument. BUT I do not recommend this if you are not a medical professional who has experience in doing so as irreparable damage may be done to the tympanic membrane or even cause injury to the ear canal. And so the most basic thing that a lay person can do as a first aid for someone who has insect inside his/her ears is this:

1. Calm the patient down. Yes the experience is understandably painful as I have seen a lot of people writhing in pain in most circumstances (even the most macho-looking patient I've seen succumbs to the small but terrible cockroach who nestles down your ear canal) but there is no other sure way of inducing more pain than letting the patient wiggle his head and whole body. The less movement the patient does, the lesser the possibility of stimulating the insect to burrow deeper or induce movement. As we have said earlier, the ear canal is specially sensitive to pain thus a 'moving' insect would definitely induce more pain.
2.  Kill the insect by filling the ear canal with Oil. There are a lot of variations to this as some would advocate for Lidocaine (anesthesia) due to its added anesthetic effect but since Lidocaine is not readily available to most lay person, any type of oil will do. Instruct the patient to have his/her head sideways exposing the affected ear and fill the ear canal with the said oil. After waiting for about 2-3 minutes, most insect definitely die as oils disrupts gas exchange, cell membrane and structure. The toxic action of oil is more physical than chemical and it provides minimum risk to the ear canal membrane.
3. Bring the patient to the nearest Emergency Room. As we have said, only medical professionals who have experience in manual extraction of insects from the ear canal should be the one to perform this procedure. If by any chance that no such medical professional is available, assure the patient that the said insect will naturally come out of the ear canal. As we have said, oils break down cell membrane or structure of an insect thus the insects body will naturally break apart after the insect dies.