Ear Wax viewer

[Tim+]

Of course. Your ear canal is full of sensitive nerve endings. You only need to touch it once or twice to learn how to avoid it. Use reasonable caution and you?ll be fine.

The hairs in your ear canal also offer feedback on what you?re doing. You might not be able to see what you?re doing but you can certainly feel what you?re doing.

It?s a ?total safety first? bit of advice but the reality is that done with care it?s very safe. People stick lenses on the eyeballs and don?t seem to worry about that too much. What it probably true is that poking cotton buds down is a bad idea they tend to push the wax further in rather than remove it.

Tim

[charles]

going round "Scotland's Oldest Inhabited Hpuse, a few years ago I spotted, in a glass case of silverware - probably Jacobean, an item called an "Etuie". it was, possibly, the Swiss Army Knife of its time. One of the 'blades' was a device for removing wax from the ear - a sort of small spoon.

[spuorgelgoog]

Are you sure it wasn't an escargot spoon?

Owain

[Phil Addison]

Thanks Tim, I just might give it a go.

Phil

[charles]

the caption said what it was used for,

[Jake56]

They poked around in their ears with whatever was handy, often hair bobby pins. And punctured some ear drums in the process.

Nope.

[Tim+]

Only if they were as stupid as you and totally cack-handed. Please cite an incidence of eardrum perforation caused by a bobby pin.

Tim

[Dave Plowman (News)]

As it happens I have worn contact lenses for some 50 years. The difference is you can see what you are doing when inserting or removing them. Not poking about in an organ you can't see.

Then I hope you'll take responsibility for those who damage their ears when doing so on your recommendation.

[Chris Hogg]

With the viewer I referred to at the top of this post, the perspex spoons fitted onto the end of the camera, so in theory you could see what you were digging into. But I still don't intend to use it, having used the 'turkey baster' method at home for something like 50 years, perfectly successfully.

As it happens, I can see I don't have wax in either ear ATM, which is good because it means that when I next book an appointment with the audiologist to have my hearing checked (which I will do eventually when all this COVID stuff has subsided, because one ear has gone totally deaf), I won't immediately be sent away and told to get the wax removed and to make another appointment.

[AnthonyL]

My friend was into pyrotechnics so presumably got a bigger fizz out the Hydrogen.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

;-) Otex is a common commercial brand of ear drops, and that contains hydrogen peroxide. Which can fizz when you use it.

[Tim+]

You can focus on your lens when it?s within mm of your cornea? Perhaps you use a mirror? No matter, the significant point is that you rely on *feel* to prevent self injury. Not just from your fingertips but from the nerve endings in you cornea.

It?s exactly the same with your ears. Because you can feel what?s going on ?from both ends? so to speak, you?d have to be a total klutz with a severe mental impairment before you would poke a hole in your own eardrum.

You really are very inflexible in your thinking. Based on nothing other than ?some people say? you believe absolutely in something but when offered

50 years of personal experience by someone you totally discount that.

Ear wax spoons/curettes have been around for probably thousands of years. They are widely used in many parts of the world.

We should all take responsibility for our own actions but maybe you?re not ready for that kind of responsibility?

Tim

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I fit/remove my contact lenses every day. Therefore there is a necessity to learn how to DIY it.

Because most experts advise *not* to do it yourself.

Female genital mutilation and male circumcision is done by non medics in many parts of the world too - along with much else. Not sure of the relevance of your comment?

I already pay for it to be done when needed. Which isn't very often.

If you need to achieve the skills needed for ear wax removal because it needs doing so regularly, I'd be looking for reasons why.

[Tim+]

There are no such things as *experts* in this subject. Only people parroting the same old same old... Just like yourself. Not prepared to engage their brains and attempt to understand why millions of folk do it worldwide without stabbing their eardrums.

Lucky old you.

Some people produce more wax than others. I have always produced lots. Had my ears syringed several times as a child. It happens.

Tim

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I suggest you go to your local ear nose and throat unit and tell them that.