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What shall I do if my plug is stuck in my ear?

Should I use garlic infused oil to prevent an ear infection?

  • I have a huge, life-determining standardized test tomorrow. A bit of ear plug got stuck inside my ear this morning when half of it ripped out as I tried to remove my earplug. Now, my ear has started hurting a little, and I'm terrified! I'm highly prone to ear infections, and am fearful of waking up with one tomorrow. It would be a huge distraction during this 3 hour test that has required months of preparation! Backstory: I ended up having to use a tweezers to extract the little nub of earplug that was lodged deeply inside my ear canal. While I was cajoling out that last bit of earplug, I probably pushed it in even farther, possibly introducing bacteria into my ear. Or maybe, just irritating the skin. Would it be advisable to put in some homemade garlic infused oil to stop an infection from developing? Does an infection have a chance of developing overnight, or not? Why might it be hurting now? I left a message with my Doc, but I wanted info on any experiences you have had with home remedies for ear infections.

  • Answer:

    FWIW, when I was a kid my father, a doctor, would sometimes clean out our ears (after taking a look inside with an otoscope and concluding that there was something causing irritation) by dripping a bit (just a few drops, really) of rubbing alcohol in there and making us lie on our side for a minute or so. Then he'd just have us tip it out onto a cotton ball. He's also told me that this is something I can do myself (now that I'm a grown-up) without putting myself at risk. I would definitely try that before the oil thing. Probably though what you are dealing with is just some irritation from the foreign object that was lodged in your ear, possibly exacerbated by your digging around in there. Ear infections as you are probably thinking of them (the kind that you might get antibiotics for from a doctor) tend go on in the middle ear, behind the eardrum -- not in the ear canal on the outside, though of course you can get an infection there too. It will probably go away on its own, though if I were you (and I'm not giving medical advice, just saying what I would personally do in your shoes) I would try the alcohol thing anyway. If you scratched yourself with the tweezers or something then it'll probably help the healing. I would seriously not worry about it though. You are not going to wake up tomorrow with a raging ear infection just because you lost a bit of foam rubber in your ear. It may feel a bit irritated for a few days if you managed to scratch yourself, but that's probably it. The best thing you can do is just relax. Plenty of time to get it taken care of later if it does develop into something unpleasant, but even if you do get some kind of infection it's not going to happen overnight. This is not to say that going to a doctor today would be a bad idea, but if it's inconvenient then I think you could feel comfortable putting it off until there was something more obviously wrong than there is now.

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Go to urgent care and have them check it out. I have no idea if garlic oil could help, but a trip to urgent care this afternoon will almost certainly be a better option, in terms of getting you physically comfortable and mentally focused for your test tomorrow, than any DIY remedy.

Meg_Murry

My experience is that I have fastidiously avoided "home remedies" for ear infections (or intrusions). That experience has worked well for me, and I recommend it heartily.

cribcage

Look up garlic and botulism and definitely do not put galic oil in your ear.

srboisvert

Never, never, never, ever stick anything pointy into your ear again. Nothing wider than your elbow. Got it? I am not qualified to tell you whether you should use ear drops to try to get it out. They might just wash it up against the eardrum. I don't see a way around this other than going to a walk-in clinic or urgent care, sorry. I agree that you shouldn't just leave it there, especially if you're prone to ear infections, so just bite the bullet and go to a walk-in clinic or to urgent care. Unless you have a medical advice line where you are, like we have a nonemergency line and we also have NHS Direct. That's the kind of service that would be able to tell you whether drops would work. But you have an exam in the morning, you don't have time to fanny around calling advice lines, so just go right to urgent care and be done with it, because that's what I would do.

tel3path

By the way, there's no reason to reuse foam earplugs. Don't buy the hugely overpriced earplugs at the drug store. Instead http://www.earplugstore.com/foam-earplugs-large-quantities.html. They cost something like 10-20c per pair.

ryanrs

An urgent care can fix this for you and assuage your anxiety in less than an hour. If you're in the US, even those drugstore walk-in clinics can handle this. The answer is not to stew over it and pour things in your ear and ask questions on the internet. Even if you do pour garlic oil in your ear, you're still going to worry about it. Go to the doctor already.

something something

Pouring oil in your ear sounds like a bad idea. Sticking tweezers in your own ear is dangerous, and was also a bad idea. I suggest you stop messing with your ears and have a doctor remove the remaining bits of earplug.

ryanrs

IANAD, but you seem in a state of high anxiety. I don't want to say you might be imagining it, but it's unlikely an infection could already have developed and that the pain you are feeling is the result of said infection. You might have nicked your ear with the tweezers. As others have said, if you're really worried about it, have it looked at. Don't try folk remedies for conditions you may not have, and don't mess with your ear anymore. DO try to calm down and relax before the test tomorrow. You've spent a lot of time prepping for it, you'll probably do well, ear infection or not.

ubiquity

What you have is pre-exam anxiety. There's bacteria in your ear all the time. Stop by the doc in a box if you think it will calm you. However, my guess is you'll stop worrying about the ear and start obsessing about that dry spot on your foot or that new freckle. That's how anxiety works. Anxiety is a lying little shit. If you've got the ear plug out, then all is good. Get to bed early. And knock that test out of the park tomorrow. You got this!

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