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Earache is the most prevalent basis for office visits to pediatricians. By the age of three years, more than 70 percent of children will have had at least one experience of earache, and about a third will have had three or more episodes. Although, what might be surprising is that earache is also the most common occurrence for children under the age of five years to be taken to the chiropractor’s office.
How Chiropractic Care Can Help Earache and Ear Infections
A pediatrician who suspects that a child with an earache has a middle ear infection will generally prescribe antibiotics as a standard course of treatment. Advanced research, however, has concluded that this type of treatment is often misguided. Antibiotics are only effective against bacterial pathogens, and because the child’s middle ear infection may be produced by a virus, antibiotics are ineffectual. This may account for a child’s chronic ear infections.
One of the tasks of a Honolulu chiropractor is to ascertain whether or not the body’s incapability of combatting the earache or ear infection is caused by irritation of the small nerves in the spine (called free nerve endings).
When these nerve endings are inflamed, an aberrant tension is created in the small muscles of the neck. This muscle tension can put pressure on the lymphatic drainage ducts resulting in inadequate drainage from inside the ear, thus preventing the body from being able to naturally rectify the problem. In addition, balance can also be affected.
Inadequate drainage of lymphatic ducts can be discovered by a chiropractor if there is more tension in the neck and paraspinal muscles on the side with the earache. In addition, the chiropractor will check to see which spinal vertebrae are either slightly out of alignment or not moving within their normal range. This affliction may have been the consequence of any one of the number of bangs, jolts and falls that most children experience in the early years of their life. Often, a short series of spinal adjustments and manipulation of the neck muscles can help to restore normal lymph drainage. If your child is suffering from an earache or an ear infection, see your Honolulu chiropractor as soon as possible.
Advanced Research and Guidelines
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), ear infection, the most widespread childhood illness after the common cold, accounts for nearly 30 million doctor visits each year. In addition, at least 6 million courses of antibiotics are causelessly prescribed for the affliction. Recently, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released new guidelines for treating pediatric ear inflammation, and definitively recommended a period of “watchful waiting” since, in many cases, infections clear up on their own, without medication.
The American Chiropractic Association (ACA) commends the AAP on the guidelines and underlines that chiropractic management is a “good first option” for treating ear infection conservatively. “Doctors of chiropractic have been treating children for decades with great success – helping them to avoid painful ear infections, antibiotic overuse and resistance, and ear tube surgery,” said ACA President Donald Krippendorf, DC. “Particularly when dealing with young children, drugs and surgery should be an absolute last resort.”
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