If your ear infection is caused by Aspergillus, grayish-black or yellow dots surrounded by cotton-like fungal spores will form in your ear canal. If it's caused by Candida, there won't be any visible fungi that forms. Instead, there will be a thick creamy white discharge.
Blackheads are non-inflammatory acne lesions caused by dead skin cells and oil that get trapped inside your pores. Ears are surprisingly vulnerable to developing blackheads because the skin inside the ear canal is covered with hundreds of tiny hair follicles and glands that produce oil and earwax.
“[Ear pimples] are very painful because the skin is more taut there, and more importantly there's cartilage there,” Dr. Bard says.
Various medical and cosmetic treatments and home remedies may help remove or reduce them. Many dark spots are harmless. However, if a person wants to reduce their appearance, they can usually do by using topical treatments.
Melanoma is the most serious, but basal cell skin cancer is most common. It usually presents as a scaly area of skin on the ear that doesn't heal on its own, followed by a white lump that grows slowly. It's not uncommon for the lump to be painless, or for an ulcer to develop at its center.
Osteomas are pearl-like bony growths in the external ear canal. These can be small or large, and have a variety of shapes.
On physical exam, one will see a pearly white, bony outgrowth at the bony-cartilaginous junction in the external ear canal. Prognosis is excellent. Treatment with surgical excision is only necessary if the patient is symptomatic.
Otic polyp. An aural polyp is a growth in the outside (external) ear canal or middle ear. It may be attached to the eardrum (tympanic membrane), or it may grow from the middle ear space. The ear consists of external, middle, and inner structures.
Normal moles, freckles, skin tags and lentigines are not skin cancers and they aren't considered to be pre-cancerous. Moles don't tend to “turn into” skin cancers. People with many moles (more than 100) have a higher risk of developing melanoma during their lifetime.
With stage I melanoma, the tumor's thickness is 1mm or less. This tumor may or may not have ulcerated, and it isn't yet believed to have spread beyond the original site.
Spread of pigment from the border of a spot into surrounding skin. Redness or a new swelling beyond the border of the mole. Change in sensation, such as itchiness, tenderness, or pain. Change in the surface of a mole – scaliness, oozing, bleeding, or the appearance of a lump or bump.
Benign moles are usually one uniform color throughout. They can be brown, or black or pink, as long as they are one single color. Cancerous or pre-cancerous moles are multicolored. If the mole has more than one color, get it looked at.
Outlook / Prognosis
If you have melanoma on your ear, the five-year survival rates are: 99% if it's detected before it spreads to your lymph nodes. 66% if it has spread to nearby lymph nodes. 27% if it has spread to distant lymph nodes and other organs.
The most common type of melanoma usually appears as a flat or barely raised lesion with irregular edges and different colours. Fifty per cent of these melanomas occur in preexisting moles.
Redness or new swelling beyond the border of a mole. Color that spreads from the border of a spot into surrounding skin. Itching, pain, or tenderness in an area that doesn't go away or goes away then comes back. Changes in the surface of a mole: oozing, scaliness, bleeding, or the appearance of a lump or bump.
Melanoma often contains shades of brown, black, or tan, but some can be red or pink, such as the one shown here.
Freckles develop mostly due to exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun. Other causes include: Genetics. Several genes are associated with freckling.
Keratosis obturans (KO) is a rare disease of the external auditory canal affecting the age group <40 years. It is characterized by hearing loss and acute severe pain following the deposition of desquamated keratin plug in the external auditory canal.
Cholesterol granulomas are uncommon, benign cysts that can occur in the petrous apex, a part of the temporal bone of the skull that is next to the middle ear. They can be challenging to diagnosis as they resemble several other lesions.