Skin is the soft outer tissue covering vertebrates. Other animal coverings, such as the arthropod exoskeleton have different developmental origin, structure and chemical composition. The adjective cutaneous means of the skin (from Latin cutis, skin).
Sorry to hear about your problem. The numbness in the ear can be due to variety of reasons. Some of them are. Diabetes. Peripheral neuropathy. Sensory nerve trauma. Ear infection. Cold. Cerebro vascular accident. Ear injury etc. As there is no history of trauma, so ear injury and sensory nerve trauma can be ruled out. Diabetes can be detected by undergoing a blood glucose test. This numbness can be caused by a preceding throat infection which can result in ear infection leading to numbness.
Retro-cochlear disease, such as acoustic neuroma, may cause a senstion of plugged ear. Patients may say plugged ears, fulness in the ears, clogged ears, obstructed ears, blockade of ears, pain in the ear, lock in the ear, barricade in the ear, mass in the ear, obstacle in the ear, occulsion in the ear, ear arrest, ear shut off, closure of the ear.