I had some experience being treated by the NHS for blocked ears. I waited 3 weeks for an appointment. The doctor sees me, tells me it’s blocked and that he can’t do anything about it. I need to use olive oil or some over-the-counter drops.
Turns out olive oil is ineffective and the drops bleached my skin, while only causing the wax to become lodged in deeper. I finally paid £100 to get the ears cleaned by micro-suction.
I strongly agree with what the article says - no one thinks this is a big deal unless they lose hearing themselves.
I had the same situation - blocked ear, NHS doctor said they don’t usually do anything about it due to the risk of ear damage in the process.
The drops did nothing, but I ended up using one of the bulb syringes you can buy to blast it with water and it did the trick perfectly, lots of gross wax came out and I’ve had no issues since (previously they’d reoccur every now and then). Was really weird after I’d done it, everything sounded really “HD” for a while! (I remember I took advantage and went record shopping, lol)
Doctors IME will always advise not to do it, but also IME it works far better than anything else.
I've always had blocked ears, and my grandfather had been an NHS doctor back when this was standard (before the advice not to do it came down), so he was the one who showed me how to do it -- very, very gently and repeatedly, with slightly warm water, don't need to push the point of the bulb/syringe in. And the wax just drops out after a few applications (in big gross lumps if it's bad!).
Absolutely not medical advice, but just to confirm that it works extremely well.
I have had to go to a doctor only once because of impacted wax. He did pretty much the same thing. He used a massive copper syringe for the task. The only thing he did differently than the video was using cotton swabs to immediately dry the ear canal. It was painful, but he said leaving the region wet can lead to infections. I don't trust untrained people to use swabs in the sensitive regions of the canal.
Anyway, for home cleaning, 3% H2O2 or baby oil have been working well enough ever since.
I had the same experience in the U.K., twice - once about 12 years ago, once two years ago.
Olive oil does absolutely nothing that I can tell. I’ve tried it, fastidiously, as my ears are really prone to filling with wax.
My experiences on continental Europe have been entirely different, however.
Ten years ago, about 18 months after being refused treatment in the U.K., I was working in France, and woke up one morning utterly deaf in one ear. Couldn’t unclog it, so went to the local rural clinic. I had to wait about 15 minutes, and they hosed my ears out with a rubber hand-bulb. Magic. €7.20, I think, which was the standard consultation cost at the time.
Most recently, I had an ear block again a few weeks ago, and I now live in rural Portugal. Again, took myself to the local clinic, hoping to make an appointment - and they were shocked that I hadn’t gone straight to their emergency department. I had no idea or expectation that they would have an A&E - this is a tiny clinic for a population of less than 2,000. Anyway, toddled around to the back, where there is indeed an A&E, and again, they did it there and then, no cost.
I’ve found doctors in the U.K. to generally be a pretty unhelpful bunch - I think it comes from them drowning in insane KPIs and spending most of their time pushing paper or trying to keep their practice from disintegrating. They don’t have time for patients. I ended up seriously unwell as my GP kept brushing me off — and a dear friend ended up dead, as she was repeatedly told by her GP that her colon cancer was IBS, until it metastasised and ate her alive.
Your last paragraph is why to me the idea of "you only get to see a specialist if the GP refers you to one" completely ridiculous.
It's not the first time I hear about GPs brushing off potentially dangerous conditions. I don't think it's so much about paperwork but rather a narrow pidgeonholing and a patronizing feeling.
I've had the opposite experience, just if we're sharing anecdotes. Went to my GP, he recommended olive oil, put a few drops in, a fat big block of earwax naturally came out of my ear just few hours later. So it definitely works(for some people).
No matter what I try my ears both get blocked regularly, every 6 - 12 months.
The first time, a nurse syringed it after the doctor prescribed drops which contained olive oil. He said it wasn't to fix the problem (although sometimes that alone does dislodge the wax), it was to soften the wax to make the syringing safer and more effective.
These days I see a doctor who uses a suction tube and a small metal scoop and whenever he digs out something wothwhile he delights in presenting it to me to see.
I have had problems all my life, worst is diving into water and impacting wax and water leading to all sorts of issues including fungal ones that are hard to treat. Doctor said I "make a lot of wax, probably genetic". One ear is very narrow due to swimmers ear.
Then I discovered the use of hydrogen peroxide - it just eats and softens the wax, my 16 year old pulled out an enormous wad this way and all of sudden could hear properly.
Now I am sure the ear doctors will freak, but I put hydrogen peroxide that my wife uses for her hair on a cotton bud and put it in my ear/s.
After a while you will hear hissing and popping as it starts to work. You may need to repeat quite a few times to get thru it enough to lodge or loosen it, but this worked for me a number of times after multiple failed syringing's.
I'm sorry that you had that experience. My NHS practice has a nurse that "syringes" ears, and its fairly straight forward to set up an appointment. They do ask that you apply oil to your ears in the days leading up to your appointment, but this is just so that the earwax comes out more easily.
All ENT doctors I have ever been to in Germany as well as Taiwan offer microsuction and it was always covered by public insurance as well. It was done by the doctor and not by nurses.
Nowadays you can DIY this with some special syringes easily available. There are also other oils that are better than olive. (both can be found in pharmacies)
It doesn't even need to be a special syringe. I've been able to unblock my ears with warm water and a bulb syringe. It probably takes more effort though since the bulb only holds so much water and has to constantly be refilled.
The thing to do is to get one of these fiber optic endoscopes: https://youtu.be/cl3yX7-f-4U?t=10 Yeah, it looks silly, but it's by far the best solution. I've been using one for years after I had to get wax removed at the doctor once. Never had a problem since.
The problem with using Q-Tips is you can't see what you're doing, so you can push the wax farther in and even rupture your eardrum easily. With the endoscope you can see perfectly, and avoid damaging your eardrum while being sure that you got all the wax.
The ear drops sold for wax removal in stores don't work any better than plain water [1]. The process of flushing your ear with a syringe or squeeze bulb is unpleasant, loud, and carries a risk of rupturing your eardrum just as Q-Tips do. And you still can't see if you got all the wax out. Endoscopes are the way to go.
I've been using a metal earpick for about the last 4 years every couple of days. I'm very gentle and have a very heightened awareness of the inside of my ears and don't believe I will ever rupture or harm my inner ear or eardrum. I've never had blocked ears or a bad ear infection I just enjoy the ... Ermm... Excavation process. Okay, it might be bordering on something akin to dermatillomania. Didn't even know these cams were a thing, but I've always wanted to see what I'm doing to really find the gold.
Sometimes they work far worse than water, they can cause a very thin hard film to coat the eardrum which is almost impossible to get rid of, and which can get infected. Finally got a usb ear cam with a scraper to remove it, but it was weeks and it got bad enough they prescribed antibiotic for the ear infection but still refused to just remove wax block. They argued it was too infected so they couldnt see what was infected and what was earwax... idiots, its not like it matters. I scraped away the pus and the wax and the infection healed in a single day. Ever since I remove the earwax block with a cam scraper once a year or so and never had the kinds of ear problems I used to again.
I agree. Bought a USB-based one from Aliexpress for 10 EUR last year.
It took lots of practice to master though, and I had to be extremely cautious during the first few months. But it was worth the trouble. Never going to go back.
When I was very little, the bathroom in my house had a small plastic earwax irrigator in the cupboard below the sink. I did not know what it was, and my parents wouldn't give me an explanation beyond "leave that alone and dont't play with it." One day curiosity got the better of me and I have it a squeeze. Well, it wasn't empty. A while bunch of ants came out. Good thing no one tried to actually use it.
I had to pay a visit to my doctor roughly every 6 months to get rid of excessive ear wax. To the point where I almost stopped hearing anything on my right ear. After 30 times going to the doc, I actually bought myself this big water-shooting syringe. Its so much easier to just do it at home, and another good reason to not sit in a public waiting room during these times. I figured, if a nurse is allowed to do this, I can likely do it myself. And thats pretty much true. I wonder how many things we will find that actually dont require an expensive trained person in the medical areas. I guess there is a hidden trend to fixing things up yourself after COVID. Wonder how much money the med-bussiness is loosing now that people start to realize they dont need a doctor for every hickup.
It is clearly an opinion or commentary. Scopus calls it a note. The journal marks it as "On reflection". Not everything in journals are research articles.
Warm water from the shower head with not too much pressure works fine. Tilt your head so the water runs out while doing it.
Even my doctor said that’s the way to go. Might not work for absolutely everybody but it does for the majority. There is no need for fancy, expensive devices unless you get a kick out of the actual act of removing something physically from your body.
Treatment that works for my own "wet wax" i.e. African/Western:
1. Pre-soften wax with warm water vapor, by taking a long hot shower.
2. Apply carbamide peroxide drops, available over-the-counter in US. Lie down with treated ear up, listen for popping sounds, indicating peroxide is reacting with the wax. Adjust angle of head to maximize popping rate. Expect 10-20 minutes for exhaustion of the reaction.
3. Rinse with plastic bulb syringe sold for that purpose. Water slightly above body temp, never warmer. Minimal intrusion of tip of the syringe -- it poses some danger.
4. Blow out excess water with puffs of air, delivered by the same syringe.
Prevention:
1. Avoid ear plugs for noise protection; get over-the-ear muffs.
2. Avoid cold-water exposure. Swim with a thermal over-the-ear cap, or break rule 1 and wear thermal plugs.
I've followed these same treatments steps, and it's worked well for me. It has sometimes taken a two or three treatments to fully clear the wax out. The slight warmth from the peroxide reaction was a little disconcerting at first, but it seems like a safe and effective method.
Using modern prevalence of the dry-wax gene as the basis for probability simulations, the authors estimated that the dry form of the gene diverged from the default wet version 2,006 generations back, or about 50,000 years ago (which lines up well timingwise with the out-of-Africa theory); (2) the speed with which the new gene spread through Asia suggests it conferred some evolutionary advantage; and (3) among modern Asian, Native American, and European populations alike, the dry-wax gene is more common the further north you go — supporting the earlier idea that maybe it helped humans thrive in the cold.
Readit News
Turns out olive oil is ineffective and the drops bleached my skin, while only causing the wax to become lodged in deeper. I finally paid £100 to get the ears cleaned by micro-suction.
I strongly agree with what the article says - no one thinks this is a big deal unless they lose hearing themselves.
The drops did nothing, but I ended up using one of the bulb syringes you can buy to blast it with water and it did the trick perfectly, lots of gross wax came out and I’ve had no issues since (previously they’d reoccur every now and then). Was really weird after I’d done it, everything sounded really “HD” for a while! (I remember I took advantage and went record shopping, lol)
This YouTube clip showed me how to use it properly: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sAHx0B7icmI
I’m no doctor so please don’t consider this medical advice and do check with yours before trying this!
I've always had blocked ears, and my grandfather had been an NHS doctor back when this was standard (before the advice not to do it came down), so he was the one who showed me how to do it -- very, very gently and repeatedly, with slightly warm water, don't need to push the point of the bulb/syringe in. And the wax just drops out after a few applications (in big gross lumps if it's bad!).
Absolutely not medical advice, but just to confirm that it works extremely well.
Anyway, for home cleaning, 3% H2O2 or baby oil have been working well enough ever since.
Olive oil does absolutely nothing that I can tell. I’ve tried it, fastidiously, as my ears are really prone to filling with wax.
My experiences on continental Europe have been entirely different, however.
Ten years ago, about 18 months after being refused treatment in the U.K., I was working in France, and woke up one morning utterly deaf in one ear. Couldn’t unclog it, so went to the local rural clinic. I had to wait about 15 minutes, and they hosed my ears out with a rubber hand-bulb. Magic. €7.20, I think, which was the standard consultation cost at the time.
Most recently, I had an ear block again a few weeks ago, and I now live in rural Portugal. Again, took myself to the local clinic, hoping to make an appointment - and they were shocked that I hadn’t gone straight to their emergency department. I had no idea or expectation that they would have an A&E - this is a tiny clinic for a population of less than 2,000. Anyway, toddled around to the back, where there is indeed an A&E, and again, they did it there and then, no cost.
I’ve found doctors in the U.K. to generally be a pretty unhelpful bunch - I think it comes from them drowning in insane KPIs and spending most of their time pushing paper or trying to keep their practice from disintegrating. They don’t have time for patients. I ended up seriously unwell as my GP kept brushing me off — and a dear friend ended up dead, as she was repeatedly told by her GP that her colon cancer was IBS, until it metastasised and ate her alive.
It's not the first time I hear about GPs brushing off potentially dangerous conditions. I don't think it's so much about paperwork but rather a narrow pidgeonholing and a patronizing feeling.
The first time, a nurse syringed it after the doctor prescribed drops which contained olive oil. He said it wasn't to fix the problem (although sometimes that alone does dislodge the wax), it was to soften the wax to make the syringing safer and more effective.
These days I see a doctor who uses a suction tube and a small metal scoop and whenever he digs out something wothwhile he delights in presenting it to me to see.
Then I discovered the use of hydrogen peroxide - it just eats and softens the wax, my 16 year old pulled out an enormous wad this way and all of sudden could hear properly.
Now I am sure the ear doctors will freak, but I put hydrogen peroxide that my wife uses for her hair on a cotton bud and put it in my ear/s.
After a while you will hear hissing and popping as it starts to work. You may need to repeat quite a few times to get thru it enough to lodge or loosen it, but this worked for me a number of times after multiple failed syringing's.
https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/earwax/management/management/
https://www.nice.org.uk/news/article/remove-earwax-if-a-buil...
So it's odd that there are doctors refusing to do it.
But yes it is an annoying problem.
The problem with using Q-Tips is you can't see what you're doing, so you can push the wax farther in and even rupture your eardrum easily. With the endoscope you can see perfectly, and avoid damaging your eardrum while being sure that you got all the wax.
The ear drops sold for wax removal in stores don't work any better than plain water [1]. The process of flushing your ear with a syringe or squeeze bulb is unpleasant, loud, and carries a risk of rupturing your eardrum just as Q-Tips do. And you still can't see if you got all the wax out. Endoscopes are the way to go.
[1] https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD...
Has anyone who's ever harmed their inner ear or ear drum not thought this beforehand?
Hackaday published a blog post about using earwax microscopes for SMD soldering:
https://hackaday.com/2019/11/11/review-ear-wax-cleaning-came...
I used a water irrigation bottle to get rid of my ear wax.
Super simple. Melts the wax with slight warmer than room temperature water.
You'd be surprised how many medical problems you can solve with the insight of people who have had it on Amazon.
Even my doctor said that’s the way to go. Might not work for absolutely everybody but it does for the majority. There is no need for fancy, expensive devices unless you get a kick out of the actual act of removing something physically from your body.
1. Pre-soften wax with warm water vapor, by taking a long hot shower.
2. Apply carbamide peroxide drops, available over-the-counter in US. Lie down with treated ear up, listen for popping sounds, indicating peroxide is reacting with the wax. Adjust angle of head to maximize popping rate. Expect 10-20 minutes for exhaustion of the reaction.
3. Rinse with plastic bulb syringe sold for that purpose. Water slightly above body temp, never warmer. Minimal intrusion of tip of the syringe -- it poses some danger.
4. Blow out excess water with puffs of air, delivered by the same syringe.
Prevention:
1. Avoid ear plugs for noise protection; get over-the-ear muffs.
2. Avoid cold-water exposure. Swim with a thermal over-the-ear cap, or break rule 1 and wear thermal plugs.
https://www.straightdope.com/21344485/why-is-asian-earwax-di...