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Best way to clean ears?
Jan 10, 2012 at 3:46 PM Post #31 of 58
Q-tips really aren't a good solution, as they push the wax deeper into your ears more than they actually extract anything. Plus they can leave deposits of fibers behind in your ears. A better solution would be specially designed wax-scoops or loops that you can buy at drug stores. These vaguely resemble the loops used by doctors, with the disadvantage of your not being able to see what you're doing. As a result, you can scrape and injure your ears with them if you're not careful. The deeper you go, the more likely this is to happen. Which is unfortunate because that's were a lot of wax builds.
 
You may want to buy a wax cleaning kit, also available at drug stores. Debrox is one brand. I'm sure there are plenty of others. Basically, you put several drops of the solution into your ear and let it sit for a while. These come with bulbs generally that you can fill with water and use to flush out your ears. Using warm water is much more comfortable and more effective than using cold water, fyi. You should be able to flush your ears out fairly well with these kits.
 
Be careful with water around your ears however. If it gets in too deep you could get "swimmer's ear" or worse: an ear infection. This is NOT pleasant.
 
As a last resort you, if you have a lot of earwax, you should see a doctor to get your ears professionally cleaned. It's honestly a rather painful process: they go DEEP into your ears with a specially designed loop and suction device to extract wax. If you have a lot of it and it's deeply lodged (like from q-tips) then extracting it will hurt. Afterward though you'll feel much better. You'd be surprised at how much wax they get out from your ears.
 
That's one of the best audiophile "upgrades" you can do: get your ears cleaned. Your gear will sound much better.
 
Jan 10, 2012 at 10:16 PM Post #33 of 58
Just sayin, for the past 28 years regular old cotton swabs after a hot shower have done it for me. At my last audiologist mold appointment he commented on how good and clean my cannals were.
 
Jan 11, 2012 at 12:14 AM Post #35 of 58
As someone who had a persistent ear infection that took months to go away, let me respond to everyone at once...
 
Q-tips are ok, just don't use them all the time and when you do only gently clean the outer part of the ear canal.  i.e. where normal iems would fit, not deep insertion ones.  For normal ppl who don't like waxy ears I'd suggest using qtips after a shower a few times a week just so your ears don't get super waxy.
 
However, doctors recommend not using qtips.  They can scrape the skin in your ear canal, or mess with the hairs in your ear canal (which can eventually stop growing back if you mess with them too much iirc).  They also remove the protective layer of wax in your ears.  With that said, I used qtips every day for most of my life and never had a problem until recently (which I'll explain in a minute).  This is why I suggest every two or three days.
 
Your ears do naturally drain by themselves, but this process may leave you with waxy ears which are disgusting when combined with iems.  Plus if your ears have a bunch of (healthy) wax in them and you go deep-inserting your er4's with tri-flanges you could get a plug way in there which trust me is not cool.
 
Debrox or similar ear cleaning kits are the poor man's ear lavage.  If you have a chunk of wax stuck in your ear it will not be easy to get out with debrox, but I have done it before.  It will take several times to get it out while a doctor's ear lavage should take care of it right away since they use syringes that are much stronger than the weak little 'bulb' the debrox comes with.
My doctor did say some people who have waxy ears use diluted H2O2 in the same way you use the debrox.  Just keep it in the shower and use it every once in a while.  Peroxide is cheap and you don't want to waste your money on debrox.  He said they use it every few days or every week just to keep the wax from building up.  If you find the need to do that I'd suggest getting the debrox or store brand equivalent with the bulb included once just so you have the bulb to rinse your ears out with.
 
No one mentioned yet, debrox is NOT hydrogen peroxide.  It contains a different peroxide that does basically the same thing.  Just FYI.
Also worth noting, use warm water to flush your ears out after the debrox/peroxide.  Cold or hot water won't hurt you but it might make you dizzy.  TBH its not really a big deal, just don't use really hot water or ice cold water.
 
Getting your ears cleaned by a doctor shouldn't be painful if they do an ear lavage.  I remember it hurting a little once but that's because they were rinsing my ear harder than normal.
 
Now here's my story.  One ear began to really itch all the time.  Naturally i'd rub it.  After a while it plugged up with wax which I eventually got taken out by the doctors (ear lavage FTW!
smile.gif
).  To make a long story short, the nurse practitioner I was going to didn't know what the problem was so the ear would start itching again after a week or so and the plug would eventually come back and I'd go back to get it flushed out again.  Every time it was infected and I'd use antibiotic eardrops (expensive, so don't let it get that far).  As soon as I'd stop using the antibiotic eardrops the itching would start to come back and eventually the infection/plug would come back.  Eventually I went to a doctor who suggested I stop using qtips.  After a few more lavages, using debrox all the time, and really waxy ears for a while, the infection and the plugs went away.  Here's why it happened, at the time I was taking two showers a day and using qtips both times.  I was also using them much deeper in my ear than I should've been, and was using them much more forcefully than I should've been.  Not only that I was using my klipsch custom 3's with the biflanges deep inserted for hours a day.  All that gave me an ear canal infection, not to be confused with the more common infection of the eardrum.
 
Now I occasionally use debrox and almost never use my iems.  I stopped using qtips completely.  Once or twice recently I used them lightly to pull out some wax.  I don't use the biflanges anymore and only shallow insert the single flanges.  When I do use the iems they come out pretty waxy which is why I wear headphones when I can.
 
Hope this helps you
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Jan 11, 2012 at 1:02 AM Post #37 of 58
i got the debrox. i can hear a lot better but it's still a temporary sollution. i rinsed it out, dried the outside of my ear, and my dumb ass decided to do it again without checking the water temp and i'm pretty sure i burned something in my ear -_-. i got dizzy for like 3 minutes and now my left ear has muffled hearing. hopefully it'll heal. anyway the debrox was awesome but should probably only be a temporary sollution
 
Jan 11, 2012 at 1:03 AM Post #38 of 58


Quote:
zenmac said:
As someone who had a persistent ear infection that took months to go away, let me respond to everyone at once...
 
Q-tips are ok, just don't use them all the time and when you do only gently clean the outer part of the ear canal.  i.e. where normal iems would fit, not deep insertion ones.  For normal ppl who don't like waxy ears I'd suggest using qtips after a shower a few times a week just so your ears don't get super waxy.
 
However, doctors recommend not using qtips.  They can scrape the skin in your ear canal, or mess with the hairs in your ear canal (which can eventually stop growing back if you mess with them too much iirc).  They also remove the protective layer of wax in your ears.  With that said, I used qtips every day for most of my life and never had a problem until recently (which I'll explain in a minute).  This is why I suggest every two or three days.
 
Your ears do naturally drain by themselves, but this process may leave you with waxy ears which are disgusting when combined with iems.  Plus if your ears have a bunch of (healthy) wax in them and you go deep-inserting your er4's with tri-flanges you could get a plug way in there which trust me is not cool.
 
Debrox or similar ear cleaning kits are the poor man's ear lavage.  If you have a chunk of wax stuck in your ear it will not be easy to get out with debrox, but I have done it before.  It will take several times to get it out while a doctor's ear lavage should take care of it right away since they use syringes that are much stronger than the weak little 'bulb' the debrox comes with.
My doctor did say some people who have waxy ears use diluted H2O2 in the same way you use the debrox.  Just keep it in the shower and use it every once in a while.  Peroxide is cheap and you don't want to waste your money on debrox.  He said they use it every few days or every week just to keep the wax from building up.  If you find the need to do that I'd suggest getting the debrox or store brand equivalent with the bulb included once just so you have the bulb to rinse your ears out with.
 
No one mentioned yet, debrox is NOT hydrogen peroxide.  It contains a different peroxide that does basically the same thing.  Just FYI.
Also worth noting, use warm water to flush your ears out after the debrox/peroxide.  Cold or hot water won't hurt you but it might make you dizzy.  TBH its not really a big deal, just don't use really hot water or ice cold water.
 
Getting your ears cleaned by a doctor shouldn't be painful if they do an ear lavage.  I remember it hurting a little once but that's because they were rinsing my ear harder than normal.
 
Now here's my story.  One ear began to really itch all the time.  Naturally i'd rub it.  After a while it plugged up with wax which I eventually got taken out by the doctors (ear lavage FTW!
smile.gif
).  To make a long story short, the nurse practitioner I was going to didn't know what the problem was so the ear would start itching again after a week or so and the plug would eventually come back and I'd go back to get it flushed out again.  Every time it was infected and I'd use antibiotic eardrops (expensive, so don't let it get that far).  As soon as I'd stop using the antibiotic eardrops the itching would start to come back and eventually the infection/plug would come back.  Eventually I went to a doctor who suggested I stop using qtips.  After a few more lavages, using debrox all the time, and really waxy ears for a while, the infection and the plugs went away.  Here's why it happened, at the time I was taking two showers a day and using qtips both times.  I was also using them much deeper in my ear than I should've been, and was using them much more forcefully than I should've been.  Not only that I was using my klipsch custom 3's with the biflanges deep inserted for hours a day.  All that gave me an ear canal infection, not to be confused with the more common infection of the eardrum.
 
Now I occasionally use debrox and almost never use my iems.  I stopped using qtips completely.  Once or twice recently I used them lightly to pull out some wax.  I don't use the biflanges anymore and only shallow insert the single flanges.  When I do use the iems they come out pretty waxy which is why I wear headphones when I can.
 
Hope this helps you
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Click to expand...

i didnt check the second time rinsing and i used extremely hot water and now my ear's muffled. i'm sure it'll heal tho. and ya! the iems come out like not super waxy but you know theres wax on it. and u can feel it rubbing against your ear wax when its in your ear
 
 
 
Jan 17, 2012 at 6:01 AM Post #42 of 58
Wax will indeed build up over time regardless. It's just a natural biological process.
 
Using plastic loops or scoops is a better at removing the bulk wax, but be careful as you can scrape or scratch your ear if you are too forceful or go in too far. Q-Tips are best for removing waxy films or leftover debris IMO.
 
Sometimes wax can harden or be too deep to use cleaning tools. Debrox or some other wax remover can loosen it, and whatever doesn't drain naturally can be then removed more easily with tools.
 
Jul 9, 2012 at 6:24 AM Post #44 of 58
Im 20 year old... and after my hearing was degraded to the point where I can no longer hear anything on my right ear.. I went to check it out.. (how irresponsable, though I always had great hearing)
 
Just now I returned from the doctor after an hour long session of washing my ears and physically removing DIRT from my ears. The amount of garbage that came out is unbelievable. Right now I am so sensitive to noise I am bothered by louder conversations and clicking sounds. The lady told me that I will even be able to hear "ants moving" round... which sounds disturbing enough.
 
However, I gonna wait for an hour or so, and i gonna do some listening to see what my ears can do now. I guess Ill be bothered by the K701 treble more than ever.
 
Jul 9, 2012 at 2:44 PM Post #45 of 58
my parents, who are doctors, recommend to not use q tips or the little plastic spoon thing
i used to use the spoon thing but they said it can irritate your ears and cause ear infections easier so i dont use them anymore
what they do that they fill a huge metal syringe with warm water and then flush out my ears and all the wax spurts out 
 
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