Extreme outer ear pain: What can it be?

Omg. I wear glasses and now remember getting glasses around same time as start of my ear pain. Never considered.. Will ask my allergy dr when i see him.

I’ve been searching on this topic for years! I’ve learned to fall asleep cupping my ear with my hand to help relieve the pressure. But as one does while they sleep, I move and then my ear will inevitably start to hurt. I wake up almost nightly with the pain, hopefully before it gets too bad so i can turn. I’ve gone through countless pillows! I have to lift my head off the pillow at a glacial speed or it hurts even worse. Some days my ear will ache or be sensitive to touch for hours after waking up. I don’t think I have the autoimmune disease discussed as I don’t have any of the other symptoms associated. And I don’t have fibromyalgia. I saw one posts about vitamin C&D. Was wondering about dosage though.

@mezzsmrs, Have you tried sleeping with a special ear pillow - one with a hole in the middle? I found this article that seems to fit your symptoms.

Agonising ear pain that's easy to cure: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-4509128/Agonising-ear-pain-s-easy-cure.html

Mezzsmrs, please try massaging a facial cream on and behind your ears (not in the eardrum, of course!) It works for me - I put it on twice daily, and especially before going to bed. And when the excruciating pain does occur, I immediately massage with the cream - Please let me know if this works for you.

Hi all, jumping on as I'm really struggling. 34 year old female! Get severe pain in left ear only when laying down. Wakes me from my sleep and when I move my ear from the pillow the pain increases. This can last up to a few minutes and I can't even touch it. I have to wait until it calms down. Has been going on for over a year now, use to happen every now and again but recently it's happening every night. Currently 30 weeks pregnant so not sure if that's a reason for it happening more regularly. Not getting a lot of sleep as it is with right hip pain but the ear pain on top is really getting me down. One doctor said (via telephone) sounds like eustation dysfunction but waiting list is very long and they won't do anything as I'm pregnant so what do I do? I googled this and I'm not sure the symptoms match what I have so not sure. Please help. Thanks

I went to Mayo in Rochester for these problems. They did a thorough exam and found nothing. It continued.....I found it difficult to sleep on my left ear. The inside of my left ear itched like crazy. I decided to try different things to try to stop the pain and itch. I am an RN. First, I decided it may be from a low level bacterial infection. Nothing wrong with me dental wise I use ear plugs showering daily. I gently wash the ear and rinse thoroughly. I brush my teeth 3 times daily, with a soft toothbrush, making sure I do a good job on the gum line.I floss everyday. I use listerine daily before bedtime. I .wash all my eye glasses daily, including the ear pieces in running water. I gently massage the painful affect ear and put alcohol on it daily. It took at least a month of this daily routine before I notice any relief. It has been 3-4 months and I have found relief .It may sound like a crazy routine, but the pain and itch were driving me crazy. I hope this helps people with same problem. Best of luck.

@2beagles I am glad that you found some relief!

@2beagles I'm so glad that you posted what has worked for you to soothe external ear pain and internal itch. You'll notice that I moved your message to the existing discussion on "Extreme outer ear pain" where many members are talking about this exact problem. I'm confident that @ellienewfan @poco @hippygrandma @womanslife @celesteh77 @nibor63 and others will be interested in your post.

Do you simple wash your ear with soap and water?

I gently was my external ear with the shampoo in my hair.....and rinse. For some reason this cleansing of my ear, glasses and teeth has given me relief. I hope it helps others. The relief came slowly, so don’t be discouraged.... good luck

I have suffered from the same problem for more than 30 years. It started out very similar to what you describe and for many years I put it down to TMJ. Even though the bite guard I wore nightly did nothing to improve the pain. I'd done loads of research as to what the cause might be. The closest I've come (and no doctor has ever even looked into my pain) to any sort of self-diagnosis is something related to the Trigeminal Nerve. Trigeminal Neuralgia (Tic Douloureux). You can find out more under NORD's website. (Sorry, I'm new and cannot post a direct link.)

My pain doesn't quite fit either TN1 or TN2 classification, but I do have MS, which I assume is the cause.I would suffer daily pain of a level 7 to 10 for days on end. Holding a phone to my ear hurt, laying on my side was (and still is) near impossible. Even if my ear didn't actually touch the pillow, my ear would hurt.

The only thing that offered relief was when I started taking Lyrica for other nerve pain. I am now on 2400 mg Gabapentin daily and that just keeps the constant pain at under a 3. Lyrica worked much better and I needed less medication, but the co-pay was too high and I had to change. My quality of life has been much improved by the pain meds, though by no means am I pain free.

I do hope some of you who posted about this same problem have at least gotten relief from the pain, if not a diagnosis.