What Causes A Sensation Of Coldness In Ears?

Posted on Fri, 27 Mar 2015

Question: My son in law has an intermittent sensation of cold in his ear. It has been going on for several months. He has to put his hand over his ear to warm it up. He has a desk job, does not engage in excessive physical exertion much and he lives in California so is not exposed to cold.

Answered by Dr. Prahlad Duggal (25 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Descriptive

Detailed Answer:
Hi,

Thanks for the query.

Cold sensation in ear intermittently without any associated symptoms or disease can be some thing non specific which should resolve with measures like keeping the ear covered and avoiding exposure to cold.

Otherwise this sensation can be because of neurological causes and needs a neurological evaluation including the sensory examination.

If there is some associated areas involved, the cause needs to be investigated by a neurologist.

If on examination there is no sensory abnormality detected (which should be the case from your history), there is nothing to be worried about and taking some B Complex vitamins and covering the area should do.

Diabetes can be another cause and needs to be investigated.

If the patient takes alcohol frequently, the cause can be associated with that also. Stopping alcohol intake should help.

So, please do follow the instructions like covering the ear and avoiding cold exposure. If no improvement, get an ENT examination done. Ear should most probably be normal on examination. If so, and the problem is severe, a neurological examination should be done.

Feel free to ask another query.

Regards

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar