Ear Wax Causes Cough

I am always amazed that even after l8 years of family practice I have the opportunity to learn or discover new things that are not in the medical textbooks. That is one of the reasons that I like family practice so well.

I saw Mr. Jones* today whom I have treated for a number of different problems, but the thing that I learned from him today was that the cough which he had had for a number of months was simply relieved by cleaning out his ears of impacted cerumen. I had tried various antihistamines with the thought that his cough was related to sinus drainage. This makes sense because there is a cough reflex nerve that does go to the ear canal and certainly if the ear wax was impacted enough it could cause a chronic cough, although you will never see that in the medical textbooks. (Most of us know that if you put something into your ear you may get a cough as a result. Try it sometime if you have never seen this happen).

So everyone, keep on learning.  

*Not his real name