Home remedies for ear pain due to a cold

A cold can swell the nose and the passage that helps balance pressure behind the eardrum. This may create fullness, popping, muffled hearing or aching. A cold can present with ear pain, but earache can also accompany earwax buildup, sinusitis or a middle-ear infection.

Rest, drink fluids and use a warm—not hot—cloth against the outer ear for short periods. Keep your head raised when resting, and swallow, yawn or chew gently to encourage pressure equalisation. Saline nasal spray may help a blocked nose. If suitable for you, follow the label directions for an age-appropriate pain reliever; a pharmacist can check interactions, pregnancy considerations and conditions such as stomach or kidney disease. Do not put oil, cotton buds or unprescribed drops into the ear, and do not try to remove wax while the ear is painful.

Arrange medical advice if pain is severe, lasts beyond the cold, keeps returning, or comes with hearing loss, discharge, dizziness or swelling around the ear. Seek urgent help for marked drowsiness, facial weakness, severe headache, or a rapidly worsening illness. Children, people with reduced immunity and anyone with a ruptured eardrum history may need earlier review.

Could pressure from the cold explain my symptoms, or is there an infection or wax blockage? Should my ear be examined before I use drops? Which pain medicine is suitable with my other medicines?