Started as strep throat

[Jehw]

About a week and a half ago I woke up with my body cold and my head hot so my mom said it was a fever so I took some Advil and thought it would go away, I went back to sleep and woke up again with a sore throat so I took a halls but it still hurt when I swallowed

[Paderla Anitha, DNB]

Hello and hope you are doing well.

The ear pain could be due to the throat infection. There are tubes called 'Eustachian  tubes' which connect the middle ear to the throat, this balances the air pressure in the ears. This tube can get  blocked due to infections of the throat, which can give lead to a feeling of fullness in the ears. This can also result in infection of the ears. The blocked ears can be opened up by the valsalva maneuver, where air is blown into the cheeks against a closed nostrils, this sometimes helps to open up the tubes. Steam inhalations and warm salt water gargles can help clear the tube. As the infection resolves, the pain should go down.

Hope this helped and do keep us posted.

[geminigirl1963]

With the cracking sound in your jaw, it could also be  TMJ, which is an inflammation of the jaw joint.  Unless it's really severe and causing a lot of problems, there isn't too much taht can be done for it - yoru dentist sometimes can give you a mouth guard to wear while sleeping, cause if you grind your teeth or clench your jaw while sleeping, it can aggravate it.  Usually some anti inlammatories such as ibuprofen or aleve will help with the pain.  and yes, if it is TMJ, even though the real problem is in the jaw joint, it definitely can and does cause ear pain.

I still think it's probably betst to get it checked by your doctor and see what they say - if they think it is TMJ, they may have you follow up wth your regular dentist or an oral surgeon.

[Jehw]

Thank you so much, whenever I swallow something my ears pop. And when I put something warm on it my jaw would make a cracking noise and it hurt my ear real bad.

[geminigirl1963]

You may have an ear infection along with teh strep throat.  Are you still on the penicillin?  How long ago did you finish it?

If you're done with teh antibiotics and you're still having ear pain, I'd suggest having your mom take you back to the doctor to have it checked out.  Sometimes they can give you some drops to put in your ear that work much better than an oral pain reliever such as Tylenol.  They may also want/need to give you another round of antibiotics if the ear is infected.

Meanwhile, some things I do when I have an earrache is to make a warm compress by running a washcloth under very warm (not hot) water and then ringing out the excess - then I hold this warm compress to the ear that is hurting.  I'm not sure why it works, but I do find that this helps sometimes with the pain.  Sometimes I'll also put a cotton ball in my ear (don't push it in far, just enough that it doesn't fall out) - because whenever I have an earrache, I find that any air blowing into my ear makes it hurt a lot worse and the cotton ball avoids that - this is especially true and helpful if you're outside.

Also definitely try propping yourself up in bed at night when you're trying to sleep - if you're laying flat in bed, the pressure in your ear from infection/fluid, etc., will be increased, so if you sleep on a couple of extra pillows, it might help.

But definlitey the most important thing is to get back to the doctor to have this checked out - you definitely don't want to take any chances when it comes to your hearing.

I hope you feel better soon!

[Jehw]

So me and my mom went to the doctors, they said I had a strep throat and gave me penicillin for that, but after a day my right ear started to hurt so much I couldn't sleep. It felt like I could hear my own heartbeat through it, but was really loud. A sharp pain would also go through my jaw and it felt like someone was pinching the inside of my ear. The doctors told me to get Tylenol 1 for it but that didn't work either, I'm only 15 years old does anyone know how to help me?