Slightly disgusting biological problem

[Alphathree33]

I have this stupid wax buildup in my left ear and it's driving me nuts.

I'm told there are drops that can dissolve it, but I'm also told you're not supposed to use such things if you have a perforated ear drum. Well, I had a perforated ear drum when I was really little, but have not had a problem since -- this leaves me uncertain.

Anything else I can do? I know you're obviously not supposed to stick anything in your ear for the same reason \-- you can perforate your ear drum.

 

[ruffilb]

Q-TIP

 

[Alphathree33]

Originally posted by: ruffilb
Q-TIP

This is inner-ear. I'm worried about sticking something down there, I'm told it can just further compact the problem (what's to think that putting a QTIP in is going to pull something out?)

 

[jpeyton]

Turkey baster + medium hot water + rinse basin. Just continuously flood your ear canal, hold, then drain, and repeat for several minutes.

BTW, they do make pipettes with bulbs specifically for ears, and they are a little thinner than a turkey baster so you can insert them into the very beginning of your ear canal (not deep at all).

 

[ruffilb]

Hm, like DEEP inner ear?

Drops sound like a good idea, check your pharmacy.

 

[pray4mojo]

Those ear throat and nose doctors can clear everything out.

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: jpeyton
Turkey baster + medium hot water + rinse basin. Just continuously flood your ear canal, hold, then drain, and repeat for several minutes.

That sounds like a really bad idea in the hands of someone who doesen't know what they're doing.

Don't seal the tip of the turkey baster with your ear and then squeeze the bulb forcefully.

 

[Alphathree33]

Originally posted by: jpeyton
Turkey baster + medium hot water + rinse basin. Just continuously flood your ear canal, hold, then drain, and repeat for several minutes.

Okay-- incidentally I tried just running water in the shower for several minutes to little effect. I also tried a bit of soap which actually wasn't very helpful either (I thought it might absorb some oil, which it did, but that didn't help.)

So the key is to actually "hold" after flooding? Don't have a turkey baster, but I could probably reproduce this with some interesting tilted-head geometry in the shower.

 

[revnja]

Originally posted by: jpeyton
Turkey baster + medium hot water + rinse basin. Just continuously flood your ear canal, hold, then drain, and repeat for several minutes.

BTW, they do make pipettes with bulbs specifically for ears, and they are a little thinner than a turkey baster so you can insert them into the very beginning of your ear canal (not deep at all).

:thumbsup: this is the way to go. My mom is a nurse, and she has some crazy stories about ear irrigation. You could also go to a clinic (if it's that big an issue), and they'll do it for you. I've had it done to me, and even when I thought I had clean ears, you wouldn't believe what was in my ear. Ew.

 

[OVERKILL]

hydrogen peroxide and one of those syringes.

http://www.walgreens.com/store/product....navAction=jump&navCount=0&id=prod17204

I clean my ears once a month and when i first started doing it, the wax that came out was nasty. I can't imagin some of these people that don;t clean there ears the proper way.
A Q-tip does not clean the inside of the ear drum.
Good luck OP.

 

[Alphathree33]

Originally posted by: Eli

Originally posted by: jpeyton
Turkey baster + medium hot water + rinse basin. Just continuously flood your ear canal, hold, then drain, and repeat for several minutes.

That sounds like a really bad idea in the hands of someone who doesen't know what they're doing.

Don't seal the tip of the turkey baster with your ear and then squeeze the bulb forcefully.

Since I don't have a turket baster anyway, do you think it'd be at all dangerous to just let some water into my ear a.la the shower nozzle, tilt head and hold, then tilt other way to drain?

This surely wouldn't be much different from being under water which normally isn't harmful?

 

[Alphathree33]

Originally posted by: pray4mojo
Those ear throat and nose doctors can clear everything out.

Unfortunately they also require appointments, time out of my schedule, etc. and I want to avoid this unless I can't do it safely myself =)

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: Alphathree33

Originally posted by: Eli

Originally posted by: jpeyton
Turkey baster + medium hot water + rinse basin. Just continuously flood your ear canal, hold, then drain, and repeat for several minutes.

That sounds like a really bad idea in the hands of someone who doesen't know what they're doing.

Don't seal the tip of the turkey baster with your ear and then squeeze the bulb forcefully.

Since I don't have a turket baster anyway, do you think it'd be at all dangerous to just let some water into my ear a.la the shower nozzle, tilt head and hold, then tilt other way to drain?

This surely wouldn't be much different from being under water which normally isn't harmful?

Nah, but it won't really get anything out either.

I would say that it would be better to use something with a small nozzel, so the water can backwash out when your ear gets full. A turkey baster would work.. I dunno, I just imagined people hurting themselves by putting too much pressure there.. I don't really know anything about the subject, but like I said.. the way I'm seeing it, I bet they use an instrument that has a nozzel considerably smaller than the size of your ear canal.

 

[jpeyton]

Originally posted by: Alphathree33

Originally posted by: Eli

Originally posted by: jpeyton
Turkey baster + medium hot water + rinse basin. Just continuously flood your ear canal, hold, then drain, and repeat for several minutes.

That sounds like a really bad idea in the hands of someone who doesen't know what they're doing.

Don't seal the tip of the turkey baster with your ear and then squeeze the bulb forcefully.

Since I don't have a turket baster anyway, do you think it'd be at all dangerous to just let some water into my ear a.la the shower nozzle, tilt head and hold, then tilt other way to drain?

This surely wouldn't be much different from being under water which normally isn't harmful?

Sorry I wasn't more specific, but holding the hot water in your ear canal should only be done for about 30 seconds or so at the very beginning of the irrigation procedure to soften the wax up. After that, you want to tilt your ear canal down and continually irrigate it, so water is continually going in and gravitiy is bringing it back out.

 

[neutralizer]

Does cleaning your eyes actually help improve your hearing?

 

[NorthRiver]

You can use a water pic also. The doctor used one on me the last time I was in, and I was like WTH are you going to do with that. Worked fine and really cleaned my ears out. Just get one of those ball type......man I don't know what to call it. It has a narrow nozzle, and they sell them with the baby stuff.

 

[jpeyton]

Originally posted by: neutralizer
Does cleaning your eyes actually help improve your hearing?

Not unless you have some severe blockage.

If you're the type who doesn't use Q-Tips, it might be worth a try to get an irrigation done if you notice yourself hearing less.

I use Q-Tips religiously, in the canal as well. If done properly, you can force wax out instead of push it farther in. Last time I had an irrigation done, nothing came out.

Of course the only reason I started using Q-Tips so often was because of the first irrigation I had done, and some truly nasty crap came out.

 

[rpc64]

You need a nozzle and pressure. You have to have a bit more pressure going into your ear than you are going to get in the shower.

Edit: I would also like to say that having the doctor do it is probably the most effective way. I used to have trouble with my ears when I was little and I had irrigations done a lot. That professional equipment really cleans you out and you will feel a lot better afterwards.

 

[MX2]

Am I the only one that uses a Q-Tip daily?

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally posted by: MX2times
Am I the only one that uses a Q-Tip daily?

Q-tips clean the outside and around your ears.
Cleaning the inside requires something different

 

[Ikonomi]

First the guy who has been deaf for years, and now this thread. I'm starting to want to clean my ears.

 

[EyeMNathan]

Q-Tips make it worse, since it cannot physically "scoop" the wax out, it cleans the outside of your ear, but just pushes stuff in further, eventually creating a partial seal that kills your hearing until it is removed.

 

[zeroxt]

"do not stick anything smaller than your elbows into your ear"

What I do is rinse my ears with high pressure in the shower, holding my earlobes down for it to drain.

 

[jpeyton]

Originally posted by: OVERKILL

Originally posted by: MX2times
Am I the only one that uses a Q-Tip daily?

Q-tips clean the outside and around your ears.
Cleaning the inside requires something different

I would respectfully disagree, although it has a lot to do with your anatomy. Just sticking a Q-Tip in and out WILL push wax to the back, but my ear canal is large enough to where I stick the Q-Tip in down the center of the ear canal (so it doesn't touch the walls of the ear canal) to the safe distance inside, touch it against the wall of the canal, and then pull outward. This doesn't push wax in.