Fast track your treatment
To book an appointment or speak with one of our friendly team, please get in touch using the options below
Welcome to the Circle Health Group website. We've changed our name from BMI Healthcare. Just as before, we have thousands of specialists offering expert healthcare. Click here to find a specialist or a hospital near you.
Children are most often affected by ear infections. We look at the signs of ear infection and how it can be treated.
Middle ear infections (otitis media) can produce symptoms such as earache, deafness, high temperature and possibly blood and pus coming from the ear if the eardrum has burst. If a middle ear infection is coming back repeatedly or an eardrum is taking a long time to heal, it may be necessary to operate.
Outer ear infections (otitis externa) generate symptoms such as itching, pain, dulled hearing and discharge coming from the ear.
For the treatment of outer ear infections, if antibiotics or eardrops have not been successful, you may require wax to be syringed from your ear so that ear drops will be more effective, or an ear wick, which is where a soft gauze covered in medication is inserted into your ear, in order to gain direct contact with the infected area. This will usually be carried out by a specialist in hospital, who will need to change the gauze every few days.
For more severe cases, and where surgery is required, recovery will take longer.
If you require surgery, there is a small element of risk, as there is with all surgery. Your surgeon will discuss this with you in more detail.
Consultant ENT, Rhinology and Facial Plastic Surgeon
MBBS, MA (Cantab), DOHNS, FRCS (ORL-HNS)
Shirley Oaks Hospital
Consultant Head and Neck Surgeon
MBBS, DLO, FRCS Ed (Surg. Gen), FRCS Ed (ORL-HNS)
The Duchy Hospital
Consultant ENT Surgeon
MD FRCS (ORL-HNS)
The Priory Hospital
Consultant ENT Head & Neck Surgeon
FRCS(ORL-HNS), MS(ENT), DNB(ENT)
The Highfield Hospital 1 more The Beardwood Hospital
Consultant ENT Surgeon
MBBS DLO MRCS FRCS(ORL-HNS)
Chelsfield Park Hospital
Consultant Otorhinolaryngologist
MBBS, FRCS, DLO
The Park Hospital