What to do if an Insect/Bug accidentally enters into ear canal?

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I have seen several patients coming to the hospital with alleged history of accidental entry of insect in ear. What all are the things that you can do from home? 

Once an insect has entered in the ear canal, it’s intention will be to come out of that area but unfortunately it won’t be able to do so. So it makes some violent attempts to escape while inside the ear canal. During this time the patient can have ear pain, sensation of something moving in the ear, ear blocked sensation, dizziness, sometimes severe ear irritation can make the patient really anxious. There’s even a possibility that, violent attempts of the insect to escape can cause accidental damage to ear drum. In such cases there can be hearing difficulty as well.
What to do when such an incident happens to you or to your relative/friend ?
Never make an attempt to remove the insect alive. Also do not use any sharp instruments.
First objective should be to kill the insect. If there is any ear drops available, put 2 or 3 drops (in case of children use only pediatric ear drops).
If no ear drop is available, try to put a few drops of oil (neither hot nor cold) in ear. Any of these methods can be will be helpful to kill the insect. For effective instillation of drops or oil to ear, better ask patient to lie down sideways with affected ear up. After putting the drops, hold back part of ear and shake little or press the front projecting part of ear( tragus ) 2 or 3 times. These two methods will ensure that drops reach till full depth of the ear canal.
After doing this wait for a few minutes, if the patient is not feeling any further irritation or moving sensation in ear, indirectly it indicates that insect might be dead now. Now with headlight or torchlight helper can check the ear of patient. If the insect is clearly visible to the helper with torchlight, then he/she can try to gently to remove it with ear buds. Never use any sharp instruments. 
If the attempt is not successful after trying a few times, consider consulting an ENT specialist.
If the helper is not able to see insect clearly, do not make any daring attempts for removal. There is very high chance that such attempts can cause damage or trauma to ear canal and ear drum. So avoid such things.
In such cases, If you are not able to visualise the insect clearly, take the patient to an ENT specialist nearby. 
With the help of standard methods and instruments a specialist will be able to remove the insect without causing much damages to ear canal and ear drum.

In cases of very young babies or kids, it is always safer to get a specialist consultation.

Sometimes, immediately on suspicion of insect entry, tilting the head to affected ear side and wiggling it by holding part of ear lobule can also be helpful in dislodging the insect from ear canal if it is in the early part.
- Dr.Yethin Yedukumar (MBBS, M.S.ENT)
Hi friends. In this blog, you will find some interesting articles related to Ear, nose and throat diseases. Do share if found useful. Thankyou.

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