↑ reinforcing ↓ reducing ⊥ even method.
Clinical manifestations: Sudden onset often following a cold or flu, ear becomes red hot and painful, mild fever and chills, sore throat.
Tongue: Red tip and edges with thin yellow coating. Pulse: Floating and rapid.
Treatment principle: Disperse Wind-Heat, clear Heat, resolve toxicity.
Note: no moxa. Direct match with this site's own Invasion-of-Lungs-by-Wind-Heat slide.
Clinical manifestations: Loud roaring tinnitus like rushing water, red swollen painful ear, bitter taste, marked irritability and short temper worsening with stress, throbbing temple headache.
Tongue: Red body with redder sides, dry yellow coating, possible red prickles. Pulse: Wiry and rapid, forceful at left middle position.
Treatment principle: Drain excess Fire from the Liver and Gallbladder.
Note: no moxa. Direct match with this site's own Liver-Fire-blazing slide.
3. Phlegm
Clinical manifestations: Ear feels stuffy and blocked, like cotton in the ear, heavy foggy head and dizziness, nausea or phlegm in the throat, sensation of fullness rather than sharp pain, chronic and sluggish.
Tongue: Swollen pale body with teeth marks, thick white greasy coating. Pulse: Slippery, soft.
Treatment principle: Dry Dampness and transform Phlegm, regulate Qi and harmonize the middle burner.
Note: no moxa. This pattern is generic Phlegm without naming a specific organ, and no deck on this site has an organ-nonspecific Phlegm slide, so no pattern link is given here.
4. Spleen Deficiency with Dampness
Clinical manifestations: Ear feels heavy muffled and clogged, swollen ear appears pale not red or hot, fatigue and heaviness in the limbs, bloating loose stools poor appetite, dull rather than acutely painful.
Tongue: Pale, puffy with teeth marks, white greasy coating, moist. Pulse: Soggy and slow, soft, possibly slippery.
Treatment principle: Tonify Qi, strengthen the Spleen, drain Dampness.
Note: moxa applicable on the tonifying point. No deck on this site combines Spleen-Qi deficiency with Dampness into one slide, so no pattern link is given here.
Clinical manifestations: Fixed stabbing ear pain that worsens with pressure, hard immovable swelling in or around the ear, develops after long-standing emotional tension or unresolved trauma, irritability and chest oppression.
Tongue: Dark purple body with stasis spots, distended sublingual veins, thin white coat. Pulse: Wiry and choppy.
Treatment principle: Invigorate Blood and dispel stasis, open the orifices.
Note: no moxa. Matches this site's Liver-Blood stasis slide — a dark purple tongue with stasis spots is the same discoloration marker named there.
Clinical manifestations: Gradual slow onset, progressive hearing loss, low-pitched continuous tinnitus like cicadas, soreness and weakness of lower back and knees, poor memory and difficulty concentrating, no redness or fever.
Tongue: Pale, thin body with little or no coating, possible fine cracks. Pulse: Fine and deep, weak at both rear positions.
Treatment principle: Nourish Kidney-Yin, supplement Liver and Spleen Yin, benefit Essence and fill the Marrow.
Note: moxa applicable on tonifying points. Direct match with this site's own Kidney-Essence-deficiency slide.