[campbell]

Interesting, but how do you know if you need it done?

I'm mid 20s, never really used q-tips, never had problems with ear wax coming out of my ears, and no feeling that sounds are muffled. The only thing that springs to mind is that I listen to music a bit louder then other people, but it's well within the safe range.

So would it be worth me going to get it done?

 

[vcoheda]

I clean my ears every now and then. I lay on one side, pour hydrogen peroxide in my ear, and let it sit for about 5 to 10minutes. I pour in more peroxide ever time the bubbling stops. Then, I go to the sink, fill it with warm water, and fill the ear syringe. I put the syringe in my ear (not far though) and at an angle. You are not suppose to shoot the water straight at the ear drum but at an angle. Then you squeeze with medium or just under hard pressure. When you are done, repeat the process on the other ear. Your ears will ring for a little while afterward, but it will go away.

I found the results when I did this to be mixed. Sometimes it worked. Other times it did not or at least not well. For best results see a doctor, but this is definitely something that can be done at home.

 

[etherealbeats]

It's times like these when I love the NHS and the UK. I just went to my doctor, said I want my ears irrigated. 3 days later I got them done on the National Health Service, lovely.

 

[vherub]

I clean my ears with a qtip every day right after a shower while still wet.

Do most people do nothing for years on end?

 

[Purgatos]

I got that done once because I was playing soccer and fell to the side, got a branch jammed into my ear and I couldn't hear out of it for a couple of days. I went to the doc, who said that it just really compacted all the wax in my ear against the drum and then he squirted it all out.

It felt kinda funny.

 

[riker1384]

Quote:

Originally Posted by smeggy Just in case you all haven't seen the reports, ear candles are supposedly not as good as a real flushing and ENT's are finding that warm water works just as well (and quicker) at softening earwax as olive oil. As reported by the BBC.

Ear candling is a dangerous fraud. The idea is absurd on its face. If it somehow sucked anything out you could do the same thing with a vacuum cleaner. It's have to be one hell of a weak one. An effective vacuum would proably rupture the eardrum. You don't want hot wax near your ears anyway.

 

[robert]

... and do folks find any change in ear noise after irrigation?

 

[K2Grey]

Neither q-tips or ear candling are recommended by doctors (and especially not ear candling).

 

[SeptemberWasp]

Funny enough I ran into this exact situation this week..

I was cleaning my ears with Q-tips and I ended up pushing the wax in back to the point where I had a fully blocked ear and the pressure was getting kind of painful.

I went to the walk-in clinic the next day and they did exactly what was posted above: they took a kidney dish and I held it whilst the doctor did a pretty aggressive syringing of warm water in my ear. It "feels" wierd and totally painless, but not knowing about the process at all it seemed odd that they blasted water into my ear at that velocity safely.

Anyways, I notice my hearing is signifigantly better now that I got a good blasting. For those in Canada I'm pretty sure that like I did, you can just hit up a walk-in clinic and get 'em to give it to ya... I dunno if they would get annoyed if you showed up once a month though

 

[bill99hawk]

Thanks for the info, going to the store to get some cleaning products.

 

[John Buchanan]

Go easy with the peroxide - water only is safer. Usually you can tell when you have finished as the remaining water in your ear canal will run out instantly when you hold that ear downwards over the sink - ie there should be no residual crackling of water behind a wax plug if there is no wax plug left.

 

[Drakemoor]

Quote:

Originally Posted by vherub I clean my ears with a qtip every day right after a shower while still wet. Do most people do nothing for years on end?

it's that type of cleaning that compacts all the wax into your ear canal, years of use can cause hearing problems.

what creeps me out about that site is this nice little Q/A:

"Will it remove a bug that crawled in my ear?
No. Hold a flashlight towards your ear and the bug will crawl towards the light."

 

[pawlowski6132]

This is pretty gross.




Quote:

Originally Posted by etherealbeats This probably doesn't deserve a threat but I have just been to the doctors and had my ears irrigated. I won't go into detail but a lot came out, and wow, what a difference. I am listening to my ER-4's and everything is so clear. I don't know what i have been missing. I didn't even know that they were really blocked until the nurse said they were. It's amazing how you get used to blocked ears and turn the music up loud to still hear muffled music. Anyone who has any doubts should definitely get their ears checked. I can hear a pin drop now.

 

[donunus]

Almost everytime I swim and go at least around 10 ft underwater, my earwax spits out....hehehe. Is this basically the same thing as blasting your ears? The pool gets my ears deaf and clogged for a few days though unless I go and do a one week swimming streak then the deafness goes away and the ears get used to the pressure. Or maybe it was just the wax

 

[Jeff E]

I had no clue that there was a problem with my hearing when I went for my Peace Corps exit medical and my ears were irrigated. As I recall a substantial plug of wax came out of one of my ears. In addition to hearing more clearly, for the next day or so my auditory localization was shifted to that side. My auditory perception of the source's location did not align with its visual location!