What to do when worms enter the ear canal

April 15, 2023
Since the external ear canal is a curved, narrow, dimly lit blind tube, once a small worm enters, it can neither penetrate deeply nor exit easily, so it struggles and stirs, easily irritating the ear canal and causing discomfort. So, what should we do once the bugs enter the ear canal?

Use a flashlight

Some small insects have a tendency to light up, so illuminating the ear with a flashlight can often induce small insects to come out of the dark ear canal. However, it should be noted that bugs with larger bodies, which cannot switch direction in the ear canal, are more likely to stir to light instead, leading to increased pain in the ear canal, and other methods must be used at this time.

Injecting saline

If you accidentally enter a small insect in your ear, you can put saline drops in your ear, so that the buoyancy of the water can be used to force the small insect to crawl out on its own.

Drip vegetable oil

The easiest and most straightforward way to get an insect into the ear canal is to put a few drops of vegetable oil into the ear canal. The stickiness of the vegetable oil can be used to stick to the insect's limbs and restrict its activities, or the insect can be suffocated and die because the vegetable oil is wrapped around the insect to isolate the air. However, it should be noted that it is forbidden to put vegetable oil drops into the eardrum if it is perforated, as this may cause ear pain, vertigo, or aggravate middle ear inflammation.

Seek medical help

In general, after the insect is killed, it can be removed with a cotton swab; if it does not come out smoothly, it should not be used strongly to avoid damaging the ear canal and eardrum, and it is best to have it removed by an otolaryngologist using professional instruments in plain sight or flushed out with saline.

Tips

It is not advisable to smoke the ear canal, because the other end of the ear canal is a closed blind channel, so smoke cannot enter the ear canal without air circulation.
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