There are several causes, so let’s see what they are.
1. The most common and the most obvious cause of neck pain behind ear is the muscle stiffness due to wrong sleeping position. It is not serious and is easy to adjust – you simply need to make sure you sleep in the right pose, and your bed or mattress is fine.
Along with bad sleeping pose there may be an open window you happened to be sleeping next to, and a cold draft was passing through the room. Usually such pain resolves within a day on its own.
2. TMJ or temporomandibular joint pain is another cause of pain behind ear and jaw. The pain can be terrible and can radiate into neck and shoulders. It’s better to visit an ear nose and throat doctor to get properly diagnosed and treated.
3. Otitis media or the infection of the middle ear can cause pain in neck, which radiates there. I have experienced such pain and it is really bad.
4. Dental pain. Yes, some dental conditions may cause the pain in neck and behind ear. For example, it can be an impacted wisdom tooth, or the upper molars infection, which leads to a failed root canal, etc. This can be addressed by visiting a dentist.
5. Neck feverness or tenderness; you may have mastoiditis which is a lower jawbone swelling. An ear infection and lymph node enlargement causes it. If you treat it in time, it won’t cause any problems, but in severe cases it may be life threatening.
6. Another serious condition is the damage or rupture of eardrum. This can occur due to the excessive buildup of fluid behind the eardrum, but there can be other causes of it like vigorous cleaning with cotton buds or even the damage by some external object.
7. Ceruminosis or the buildup of earwax in the ear canal – this can result in an ear pain, which radiates into the neck. Earwax can build up and cause pain if the ear canal is too narrow. Sometimes a person could push the wax deeper into the canal thus causing the pain.
8. The cervicogenic headache can produce a pain in neck below ear, which radiates from the neck base to the head. The cause of such headache is the strong stress of the upper joints because of a bad posture, or some wrong neck movements.
If you feel like having a strange pain behind the ear down neck (it doesn’t matter behind left or right ear), it is better to visit a doctor for a consultation and probably, observation.
If you want to prevent a neck pan from occurrence, you need to adopt any kind of physical activity in your life; for example, dong yoga on a regular basis will help neck muscles remain strong and flexible, and will keep the spine in a healthy condition.