Everything You Never Thought You’d Need to Know About Adult Ear Infections

Photo: Andrey_Popov (Shutterstock)

Some medical incidents are inextricably linked to the childhood experience: Kids throw up a lot for some reason, they skin their knees, they have their tonsils removed, and they get ear infections. Of course, these things can happen to grown-ups, too, but it’s much less common. Still, because some maladies are so closely associated with kids, it can take some time before an adult recognizes the symptoms their body is displaying. Ear infections are a great example of this.

You can get an ear infection in your grown years, but if you’re stuck thinking that only happens to children, you might put off getting checked out. Let’s avoid that possibility by discovering the symptoms and causes of ear infections in adults.

Can adults can get ear infections?

They sure can. I texted a friend about writing this article and she told me she had one right now, but took weeks to get seen by a doctor because she figured there’s no way that could happen to someone in their 30s. The problem didn’t go away because she misidentified what it could have been and declined to seek treatment; it got worse in that time.

As the docs at Woodstock Family Practice & Urgent Care in Georgia explain on their website, kids do get ear infections more easily than adults because their eustachian tubes are small, short, and parallel to the ground while they’re developing, so they don’t drain super well. Mucus builds up, maybe because of a cold or allergies, and bacteria “set up shop and infect the tissues.”

Your eustachian tubes are more fully developed than they once were (congrats!) but that does not make you immune.

What are the kinds and symptoms of an ear infection in adults?

These are the types of ear infections you can get:

• Inner ear infection
• Middle ear infection
• Outer ear infection

Each of these has its own set …….

Source: https://lifehacker.com/everything-you-never-thought-you-d-need-to-know-about-a-1848917104