The pain may be referred in around half of all patients and experienced as otalgia (earache).

Primary otalgia is ear pain that originates inside the ear.

It is important to exclude cancer where appropriate, particularly with unilateral otalgia in an adult who uses tobacco or alcohol.

Conversely, TMD is an important possible cause of secondary otalgia.

Yet some patients will have a "psychogenic otalgia," and no cause as to the pain in ears can be found (suggesting a psychosomatic origin).

Referred otalgia secondary to cranial nerve involvement.

The neuroanatomic basis of referred otalgia rests within one of five general neural pathways.

Patients usually present with otorrhea, conductive hearing loss, and otalgia, while bleeding and a sensation of a mass are much less common.

Rarely, trigeminal neuralgia can cause otalgia.

Ipsilateral referred otalgia.

There may be ear pain (otalgia), and the ear or mastoid region may be red (erythematous).

It was also used to treat measles, neuralgic otalgia, tonsillitis, esophagitis, dysmenorrhea, muscular rheumatism, headaches.

Treatment of TMD may then significantly reduce symptoms of otalgia and tinnitus, as well as atypical facial pain.

Chronic otitis media usually presents in an ear with chronic discharge (otorrhea), or hearing loss, with or without ear pain (otalgia).

Patients with the classic "Eagle Syndrome" can present with unilateral sore throat, dysphagia, tinnitus, unilateral facial and neck pain, and otalgia.

The vagus nerve provides a branch termed "Arnolds Nerve" which also supplies the external auditory canal, thus hypophayrngeal cancer can result in referred otalgia.

Pain or tenderness of the temporomandibular joints, which may manifest as preauricular pain (infront of the ear), or pain referred to the ear (otalgia).

These include recurrent episodes of otitis media and otalgia, often more distressing and pressing symptoms from both the child and parental viewpoint since they require frequent treatment with antibiotics.

The importance of symptom control in this context cannot be ignored since few adults would be prepared to tolerate long periods of disability from hearing loss, otalgia, or otitis media.

It behoves otolaryngology as a specialty to assess other measures of outcome for grommet insertion such as otalgia, recurrent otitis media, sleep disturbance, dysequilibrium, personality or behavioural changes, family disruption, or absence from school.

None of the 19 randomised controlled trials used otalgia or recurrent acute otitis media as an outcome measure and so there is little scientific evidence that surgery benefits children with these conditions, especially when the high proportion who experience severe or persistent discharge after insertion of grommets is considered.