Care for Ear Infections in Royal Oak
Though ear infections are one of the most common childhood conditions that kids face, they’re not normal. The two most common approaches to resolving ear infections are antibiotic therapy and tubes in the ears. We believe that chiropractic care is a better solution as it’s natural, noninvasive and effective.
Why Does Your Child Get Ear Infections?
First of all, it’s not because they keep walking through a random cloud of bacteria; it’s because fluid is accumulating in their ear, inflaming the tissue and providing the perfect environment for a virus or bacteria (a stagnant fluid) to set up shop.
But why? Why aren’t their ears draining? When you take a bite of food, it doesn’t just drop into your stomach from gravity. Your esophagus is a muscle that milks the food down. That’s why you can swallow even if you’re standing on your head.
It’s the same process in your ear. There’s a muscle called the tensor veli paletini or the TVP that is the key to all of this. Its job is to milk fluid out of your ears so it can drain down your throat. In kids that get chronic ear infections, the TVP muscle is spasmed and does not let fluid through the Eustachian tube.
Why Would the TVP Be in Spasm?
Nine times out of 10 we can trace it back to the birth process. The TVP muscle gets its nerve supply from the top part of your neck, which is also the most vulnerable part of a baby during the birth process-especially if there was a forceps, vacuum, or C-section delivery where there is a tremendous amount of pressure put on a child’s neck.
So what happens is that the nerve to the TVP gets irritated and it stops working causing the fluid to finish draining, and the child then gets an ear infection.
You may be wondering if an antibiotic can help that. Or, it tubes are effective. The American Academy of Pediatrics and countless medical research articles have said for decades to not give antibiotics to kids with ear infections because not only do they not help, they significantly increase their risk of getting a future ear infection, as well as allergies and asthma! They’re better off doing nothing at all.
The Role of Chiropractic
The most important action to take is to get the TVP muscle working again. That’s where chiropractic comes in. To address ear infections, we adjust in and around the ear, as well as the neck and the ear itself in the areas of the drainage. Our gentle and specific adjustments can get the “kink” out of the child’s neck, restore the nerve supply to the TVP muscle, and the ears start to drain. At Van Every Family Chiropractic Center, we see the resolution of ear infections every day.
But you don’t have to take our word for it. We can do a thorough and noninvasive nerve scan on your child that will tell us definitively if nerve interference is the cause of the ear infections; if it is, we can help.
The Importance of Taking Action
An ear infection is a red flag. It’s vital to take care of ear infections before they turn into something else such as asthma or allergies. Contact our Royal Oak office today for an appointment!
