One of the most common procedures requiring anesthesia for children is a myringotomy, or placing a tube through the eardrum. Why is it so common? Because children often get earaches, and both parents and children want the pain from the earache to stop--and not come back.

While pain and prevention are powerful reasons, should they alone determine your treatment options? Ask your health care provider if there are options other than a surgical procedure to help your child (and you) survive earaches.

UI Family Care physician Daniel Fick, M.D., believes that too often tubes are used as an early option (and sometimes the only option) offered to parents when deciding how to treat their child’s recurring ear infections. "In our rush to help ease the pain of earaches we often use tubes when they may not be necessary."

Fick suggests that a regimen of antibiotics and then the appropriate period of observation can be just as effective to treat the earache while eliminating the need for surgery for young children.

An exception, he says, can be when a child’s hearing is impaired. One of the most common complications from an ear infection is the build up of fluid in the middle ear. Antibiotics alone cannot get rid of the fluid. (Antibiotics are used to combat the infection that causes the build up of fluid in the ear.)

The Eustachian tube in young children does not function properly and doesn’t drain the fluid from the middle ear. When fluid remains in the middle ear, it blocks or muffles sound and your child can experience a hearing loss. Young children learn to speak by listening, and if their hearing is muffled by fluid in the middle ear, their speech patterns may be affected. A myringotomy drains the fluids and prevent the build up of fluids in the future.

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