W W D replied: "Eustachian dysfunction, perhaps with a minor effusion, is common with and after a cold. It normally goes away without treatment, and indeed there is no consistently effective treatment.
Acute suppurative otitis media is also a fairly common complication of colds, if you're a pre-school aged child. If that's the case, you did a fine job of posting your question. It's much less common in older children and downright rare in adults. In most cases, the treatment for this condition is analgesia and watchful waiting. In children, using appropriate antibiotics, you need to treat about fifteen kids in order to get one well a day faster than without antibiotic treatment. One in fifteen is also about the number who get adverse effects from the treatment, so it's pretty much a wash. The expected organisms are such that tetracycline is not a good choice, having only modest activity against streptococcus species and less against hemophilus and moraxella."
Alan replied: "The pulmonary doctors I know often prescribe tetracyclines, specifically doxycyline, as a low-cost alternative for respiratory infections, so I guess it is active against the bacteria that commonly cause respiratory infections, which are the same bacteria that commonly cause ear infections. Which, in turn, are uncommon in people old enough to write posts on Yahoo! Answers. If you already have a prescription to take the drug for acne, it's possible it might help with your upper respiratory infection. Worst case, it will help with your acne. Pain in your ear isn't diagnostic of an infection, and an infection can be viral. I strongly agree that the best alternative course of action to treating yourself is to go ahead and talk to your doctor again!"
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