Ear wax removal

You'd may do better with Sodium Bicarbonate solution.

My YNR tool works for me.

It may get worse before getting better with ear drops. I was advised sodium bicarbonate ear drops and avoid anything with hydrogen peroxide as it can damage ear drums. The wax needs to be softened before it comes out and this may take a week or so with repeated use of ear drops. The wax will absorb water as it softens and may/will expand. In most cases it will come out by itself with ear drops, eating, snoring, etc. will gradually move the softened ear wax forward. In my case I lost hearing in one ear and with ear drops a large ball of dark coloured wax emerged after 4 days.

You can get some diy ear syringes but avoid the ones that squirt directly out of the end towards the ear drum. You can get the ones that squirt sideways and very slightly forward. I didn't find them effective.

Yes, that's about right.

Use olive oil to soften the wax. I wouldn't do anything myself with some random gizmo, nor would I trust some amateur third party to mess with my earoles. The eardrum is quite sensitive and easily damaged. Younger hands/eyes don't count for beans in this sort of situation.

A professional will use a suction device with a camera in the probe, which will (a) tell them where they are in yer lughole, also (b) provide a video record of what is happening as they work. They can see what they're doing in real time courtesy of a smart phone attached to the probe (which uses the probe camera).

So, unlike your amateur, they can see what they're doing as they do it.

Won't your GP refer you to your local hospital for this (free)? I had my ears (mainly the right hand one) de-waxed a few years ago; it required both ear drops (olive oil and bicarb) and the suction device to remove it.

Most surgeries etc seem to have stopped doing the free service. You can sometimes find it at our local surgery. The nurse doing it with the high-pressure water job (which always worked well for me) seems to be history.

Having had it done by professionals, sometimes at a cost and sometimes somewhat clumsily I am happy to diy my own blocked ears. This kit works fine for me:

Tim W

I was told around 20 years ago that my local surgery had stopped doing ear syringing because nationwide it was found to have caused too many problems with ear drum damage. I was advised to use sodium bicarbonate drops and avoid any drops with hydrogen peroxide as again this caused damage to the ear drum membrane. I was also advised to buy the drops over the counter because they were cheaper than having a prescription (I paid for prescriptions at the time).

I note that at least two private dentist practices close to where I live are adverting ear cleaning at around the £60 per ear price.

I haven't got the steadiest of hands, but it works out - as long as you do it yourself.

I've twice ended up with blood pouring out of my ears - but both of those occasions have been at the GP Surgery.

The one thing I missed was someone yelling "One hundred and Eighty!"

My mother has had tinnitus and ear wax problems all her life. She regularly had the wax removed at the hospital. Some years back, it felt far more intense than usual and found that they'd damaged both ears, with consequent hearing loss.

Despite them doing the damage, all they'd do was refer her to audiology, leaving her with a 9 month wait for hearing aids.

Tim

OK all. I think the YNR tool is worth a try after much softening. My mother was very fond of diving in with one of her hair grips.

My wife's experience with the professionals has developed into numerous repeats which I would prefer to avoid.

Luckily we watch different TVs so I can whack up the volume on my Bose earphones. Wax in left ear explains why she needs to shout when I am driving:-)

Thanks all.

I was trying to find the original of a "test" of various drops I viewed a couple of years ago but this much shorter short update video I've just found comes to much the same conclusions

The original 20 minute video which also explains what is ear wax and normal wax transport mechanism

Just a bit of YNR info. Everyone is different, but I start with the YNR, dragging any significant depostis of wax out of the ear canal. I don't use it to directly scrape wax off the ear drum. Well, not intentionally - your ear will tell you if you accidentally do!

Then I lie on one side and feed Sodium Bicarbonate solution in the ear facing upwards. !0-15 minutes later I sit up and let the dissolved wax run out of that ear. Then, same again for the other ear.

Catch the draining liquid with a tissue - but only outside of the canal. Don't put anything in the canal. Not that you'll kill yourself, but the draining Sodium Bicarb leaves a film of wax behind - protecting you from Eczema.

In my case I had a massive plug of wax stopping me hearing in one ear. The Sodium Bicarbinate drops had to be used twice daily for 4 days and then overnight the plug of dark very sticky (and stinky) wax got to my outer ear where it could be easily removed.

It does depend on how much wax there is and how long its been there, the darker the wax the older it is. Under normal circumstances the aim is NOT to remove the wax, it is the ear's protection against infection.

Depends. Some people (like me) produce considerable amounts of wax - others much less. I've had to have my ears cleaned about once a year since I've been an adult. On occasion I've left it too long, and the ear canal gets filled with an inch-long plug the diameter of the canal. Those took a deal of syringing to remove. Takes the brain a day or two to turn the gain back down again.

This works for me as well. I use the drops for four days and then stand in the shower and use the bulb irrigator and warm soapy water. It works a treat! Pete.

Thanks for that link - very interesting. When I was doing lots of aerobatics (with rapid climbs and descents) I usually had to have my ears syringed twice a year. I also used hydrogen peroxide drops sometimes but once had so much pain (presumably from the gas being released by the fizzing and the ear being blocked by wax) that I had an emergency ENT appointment to have my ear "sucked". Thereafter I only had them "sucked" and didn't use H2O2 again. Since stopping flying, about 10 years ago, I think I've only had my ears syringed once and "sucked" a couple of times. These days I wear hearing aids and had suspected they would cause wax problems, but they haven't.