The most prevailing reason for visits to a pediatrician is earache. More than 70 percent of children will have had not less than one earache by the age of three, and almost one-third will have had three or more earache incidents. However, what might be unexpected is that earache is also the most common basis 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 determines that a child with an earache has a middle ear infection will usually prescribe antibiotics as a typical course of treatment. Current study, however, has ascertained that this is often misguided. Antibiotics are only effective against bacterial pathogens, and because the child’s middle ear infection may be caused by a virus, antibiotics are ineffectual. This may be the explanation for a child’s chronic ear infections.
One of the many assessments that a Honolulu chiropractor can make is whether the earache or ear infection is caused by inflamation of the small nerves in the spine, called free nerve endings.
An abnormal tension in the small muscles of the neck is produced when these nerve endings are inflammed. This muscle tension can put pressure on the lymphatic drainage ducts resulting in inadequate drainage from inside the ear, thereby stopping the body from being able to naturally correct the problem. Additionally, balance can also be affected.
Identification by a chiropractor of such a situation is made by the detection of increased tension in the neck and paraspinal muscles. Normally more tension is felt on the side of earache. The chiropractor also checks for spinal vertebrae that are either moderately out of alignment or are not moving within their normal range. This problem may have been the result of any one of the many bangs, jolts and falls that the majority of children experience in the early years of their life. Many times, a short course of spinal adjustments and manipulation of the neck muscles will assist in restoring normal lymph drainage. If your child is experiencing the pain of 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 prevalent childhood sickness after the common cold, accounts for nearly 30 million doctor visits every year. What’s more, at least 6 million courses of antibiotics are unnecessarily prescribed for the affliction.Not too long ago, 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.”