What causes pain below the ear?

The most common cause of pain under the ear is neurological diseases such as facial neuritis. There are many causes, such as viruses, physical damage, or compression, etc., which may cause this phenomenon. We know that the ear has rich sensory nerves and is more susceptible to adverse external influences and harms than other tissues and organs.

What causes pain below the ear?

1. Reason: The mastoid process behind the ear is where the facial nerve runs. The facial nerve runs in a very narrow facial nerve foramen. When the facial nerve is invaded by the virus and edema occurs, pain will occur after being compressed. Therefore, pain behind the ear after a cold may be a precursor to facial paralysis. The causes of the disease are mostly due to cold face, physical injury or viral invasion.

Examination of most patients often found that one side of the cheek was not moving properly and the mouth was crooked when washing their face and rinsing their mouth in the early morning. In patients with complete paralysis of the facial expression muscles on the affected side, forehead wrinkles disappear, palpebral fissures widen, nasolabial grooves become flat, corners of the mouth droop, the corners of the mouth deviate toward the healthy side when teeth are shown, and there is pain behind the ears.

The affected side should not frown, knit brows, close eyes, puff out air, or purse lips. When puffing out cheeks and whistling, air leaks out because the lips on the affected side cannot close. When eating, food residues often remain in the buccal space on the affected side, and saliva often flows down from that side. Because the lacrimal points are turned inward with the lower eyelid, the tears cannot be drained normally and overflow.

1. External Ear Diseases (a) Auricular Trauma External force acting on the auricle may cause auricular hematoma or laceration. Auricular hematoma often occurs on the dorsal side of the auricle, causing slight local pain. After secondary infection, the pain becomes severe. (ii) Serous chondritis of the auricle. In serous chondritis, fluid accumulates under the cartilage of the concha cavity or in the cartilage. It is usually painless or only has slight swelling and pain. Purulent chondritis, local redness and swelling with fluctuation, severe pain. (III) Herpes zoster oticus Herpes zoster oticus, also known as Bamsay Hunt syndrome, is a viral infection of the geniculate ganglion of the facial nerve, which causes severe ear pain.

2. Middle Ear Diseases (I) Tympanic membrane trauma The most common cause of tympanic membrane trauma is a sudden increase in pressure in the external auditory canal, such as blast, slapping, diving, etc. In addition, the eardrum may be damaged if the Eustachian tube is stretched too far or the instrument is inserted too deep when removing foreign objects. When the eardrum ruptures, there is temporary tearing pain and may also cause hearing loss, dizziness, and tinnitus. (ii) Sudden onset of persistent stabbing pain after bullous myringitis. Examination may reveal bloody blisters in the external auditory canal and tympanic membrane, which heal on their own within a few days.

4. Neuralgic ear pain Neuralgic ear pain is mainly caused by viral neuritis, rheumatic neuritis, etc., involving the geniculate ganglion, semilunar ganglion, second and third cervical nerves, glossopharyngeal ganglion and vagus nerve. The most common is herpes zoster oticus caused by viral infection of the geniculate ganglion, which causes severe pain along the course of the affected nerve. Secondly, glossopharyngeal neuralgia is often accompanied by ear pain.