Should Ear Infection Drops Focus On Pain Or Bacteria?
There is a lot of discussion currently on the use of antibiotics for the treatment of pain in the ears, especially among young children and more pediatricians are beginning to focus on dealing with the pain rather than using antibiotic ear infection drops. Their reasoning is that not all ear pain is caused by a bacteria infection and the continued use of antibiotics may actually enable some strains of bacteria, already living in the child, to develop a resistance to the medication.
In many cases, a child with cold or flu symptoms will also complain about pain in the air and many doctors will begin treatment with antibiotic ear infection drops. Most parents are willingly using the prescription, as they believe that the doctor has the correct diagnosis, when in fact it has been the tradition for many years to simply presume all ear pain is associated with a bacterial infection in the ear. The use of ear infection drops that provide pain relief is becoming more common to provide the relief as opposed to a blanket prescription of antibiotics.
When a doctor peers into the ear and sees a red ear drum their first reaction may be that an infection is present and prescribe antibiotic ear infection drops. However, the redness in the eardrum could have been caused by crying, pressure, allergies and host of other reasons.
Proper Diagnosis Necessary For Proper Treatment
In order to be accurately diagnosed as an ear infection, there will usually be fluid building up behind the ear drum. There are couple of way to determine if fluid is present, including a Tympanomety that measures how the ear drum flutters, an indication of fluid being present and the otoscope to puff air into the air to see if the ear drum moves. Once in infection has been appropriately diagnosed, the use of ear infection drops may be prescribed.
Infections can be caused by a variety of problems such as what is called swimmer's ear, where water in the ear is allowed to stagnate giving a friendly environment to bacteria. Before a doctor can prescribe antibiotic ear infection drops they will need to know the type of bacteria present and the correct medicine needed to fight it. Too often the earache complaint is caused by something other than a bacterial or viral infection and the medication used only serves to strengthen the bacteria growing in the body, making fighting off later infections more difficult.
