Causes of Pain in Ear, Otalgia Pain in Ear

Pain in the ears (Otalgia) may occur either due to causes in the ear or causes somewhere else having same sensory nerve supply as the ear (referred otalgia). The causes in the ear may be either in external ear or middle ear. The inner ear has no pain fibres, so diseases of the inner ear are mostly painless.
The common causes in the external ear are:
1- Acute diffuse otitis externa
2- Boil
3- Otomycosis
4- Bullous myringitis
5- Herpes zoster oticus
6- Perichondritis
7- Trauma or foreign body
8- Impacted wax
9- Malignant otitis externa
10- Neoplasia


The common causes in the middle ear are:
1- Acute suppurative otitis media
2- Acute on chronic otitis media
3- CSOM with complications
4- Mastoid abscess
5- Trauma
6- Otitic barotrauma
7- Neoplasms


REFERRED OTALGIA:
A good number of patients complaining of earache have disease somewhere else. This is due to the common sensory nerve supply with the ear. The ear is supplied by the branches of trigeminal, facial, glossopharyngeal, vagus, greater auricular and lesser occipital nerves. Any painful pathology in the distribution of these nerves may cause referred pain in the ear.

Some of the common causes of referred otalgia
are:

1- After tonsillectomy operation
2- After adenoidectomy operation
3- Dental diseases
4- Carcinoma of the pyriform fossa, the base of tongue and tonsil
5- Nasal and PNS diseases
6- Acute tonsillitis
7- Peritonsillar abscess
8- Ulcers in mouth and pharynx
9- Cervical spondylosis or arthritis
10- Nasopharyngeal diseases
11 - Temporomandibular joint dysfunction