is everyone allowed their own ear wax thread?

xp nope but I'm curious about either the enormity of fingers or tininess of earholes itt maybe

hullo from my stupid blocked ears to this thread again, which when first begun appalled and offended doomie so much he started another thread to complain

Ugh. I'm sorry - so uncomfortable. My left is blocked rn too but not because of wax - I have a hole in and a weeping cyst on my left eardrum but it's awful and uncomfortable and also made it quite difficult to hear anyone last week!

start with the drops that have a mild peroxide gel, flush with lukewarm water with the rubber syringe bulb

these things work ok if it's really stuck in there
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81X7N2-hpQL._SL1500_.jpg

do NOT use the pen cap from a cheap ballpoint pen. it feels good, though

pen cap is a personal fave but you prob shouldn't listen to me wrt anything involving proper ear care

I can't get out of the shower without q-tipping my ear canals. I once used a fiber optic video inspection device to have a good look, and they were pristine. One could eat off them.

Stop using q-tips. Despite how it feels at the time you're likely making things worse.

Is this where I admit to watching ear wax removal videos on yourtube? There's an ENT clinic in India that seems to have a ton of them on there and they're all set to delightful Indian music. Not gonna lie though some of them are pretty gruesome and involve things like ear funal infections and surprise bugs. Actually, they're pretty gross but so fascinating.

I love cleaning my ears. I am one of those asian bobby pin people too even though my ears are rarely dirty. I also put on a headlamp and clean my partner's ears. He thinks I am crazy but he lets me do it.

xpost I love all those earwax, cyst, mango worms, dr pimple popper videos.

Holy shit that is next level and I'm honestly amazed I haven't thought of doing that before. The headlamp, I mean. Bobby pin ranks up there with pen cap for my preferred ear cleaning tools. Yes, I know it's awful. No, I'm not going to stop.

xpost - mango worms? Guess I know what I'll be doing tonight. Oh yes, big dr pimple popper fan here. I can (and have) watched these things for hours. Oh and once I stole the wax the ENT took out of my ear so I could take a picture.

I threw it out immediately after doing so but I just couldn't let it sit there.

Xpost I went through a couple of months watching dr pimple popper obsessively. It was next stage obsession. Lol. Now I stick w her insta clips. Short n popping.

I clean my ears less obsessively than I used to. It was so bad I had to go to a specialist. Lol.

My mom cleaned my ears with a bobby pin while I had to hold a flashlight s a kid. I have never had a problem with my ears, not even an earache.

I might have a weird problem, I also used to floss my dog's teeth and clean his ears a lot (not with a bobby pin).

Oh cleaning Benson's ears is one of my greatest pleasures. I didn't know about canine tooth care and the little bugger had to have 20 something pulled last year. Oh man. He has little cyst things that are amazing to pop but he hates it so much and after he bit me a few months ago I'm not risking that. NB the biting didn't happen while I was trying to do that but I don't want to do anything to upset him now.

Oh I definitely have a thing about all this gross cleaning/grooming stuff.

Yeah, I had a boxer that had tiny little dolphin teeth that everything would get stuck in and he would get crazy gum issues if i didn't floss. He was very exasperated by everything I did.

I think we killed this thread which is impressive considering I dind't even start telling the story of the time my mom finally let me at a decade old dialated pore of Weiner on her shoulder and it exploded and shot across a hotel room and got everywhere and the smell was so horrible I had to take a shower afterwards. Worth it though.

winer not weiner heh heh

I had to look it up because I thought weiner was talking about another type of dog.

this thread will never die

(as long as my earwax problem circles back every three or four years for a tiresome week or two)

somehow my allergies seem better with age but I think it's because my head is better at expelling all the junk? like I don't just blow my nose when I wake up, I have to wipe out the corner of my eyes and regularly clean my ears. my body's expelling all the evil

Jobson Horne!

lightly irrigated!

also: lightly told off for using q-tips ever and she doesn't think my tinnitus is connected (nor do i tbf it's from listening to too much horrible music in my life)

i mean

i know they always say it

but wtf else are q tips for

fuck off i say, fuck off

^^^a man in the pay of Big Punctured Ear Drum

BPE

This is an object removed from my left ear earlier today.
http://i64.tinypic.com/29y5gdx.jpg
My doctor told me it's the woolly part of a Q-Tip.
I haven't used Q-Tips since 2006.
I advise against using Q-Tips.

gnarly!!!!!!!!!!

WOW!

the only thing i use q tips for is cleaning out my belly button

beautiful :)

http://i67.tinypic.com/25guvz5.gif

can you hear better now?

also: nice, esby.

http://cdn.sci-news.com/images/enlarge5/image_6617e-Oumuamua.jpg

https://img.purch.com/h/1000/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5saXZlc2NpZW5jZS5jb20vaW1hZ2VzL2kvMDAwLzA1OS80NzYvb3JpZ2luYWwvc2luZ2xlLWJ1bGxldC5qcGc=

xposts, the woolly blob soaked up bathwater and caused an infection resulting hearing loss, so yes, I can hear better now.
The doctor also asked if I was a smoker.
I said, yes, five a day, do I have bad breath?
She said, no, I can tell by your pharynx and your nasal mucosa being all red, same thing with all smokers.
I carefully advise against smoking, but it's your choice.

Sorry for your loss.

that is one of the greatest photos of a 13-year-old earwaxed q-tip that i have ever seen

#ffs

i saw my GP and tue and asked her abt tinnitus and she had a peek with her little ear-peer lamp and said i can book you for a proper audio test but they're also full of wax u kno and they'll be cross if you turn up like that

so i am trying to dislodge the wax with olive oil and etc and right now it is in the half way stage of not full of wax but what there is is reducing my hearing by abt half (fairly sure i listened to eurovision on screaming volume last night w/o really realising, all vol knobs on max -- apologies to my neighbours if so)

i sent off to amazon for a little ear syringe, fingers x-ed that helps -- this only happens every three years or so but for a non-painful condition it makes me SO miserable

she booked the audio test also, bcz the tinnitus is real and not the cause of the hearing loss i don't think (it's only a few days old)

I think the NHS has moved out of offering wax clearing services? I never had a chance to use them.

But a lot of microsuction places have spring up, and even Specsavers offers that service now.

I became aware of my tinnitus during covid. It was as if had a tape hiss noise has been turned up in my ears. Now that my infection is over, I am aware that there is a permanent very low level background hiss. It doesn’t seem to bother me unduly, and I guess it might have been around for a some time.

I'm a long term sufferer with ear wax build-up and I agree that it's utterly fucking miserable. Basically, nothing works except syringing/microsuction and, since the NHS stopped being interested, I've just accepted that I have to pay £65 once every couple of years and that's that. As Luna says, there will be lots of places offering the microsuction service. Get booked in and keep oiling in the meantime.

Going through exactly the same thing at the moment. I have periodic problems with my left ear whereby my hearing tends to get dull especially when I have colds. However this current bout is dragging on. Went to the GP: right ear fine, left ear full of wax. Got the eardrops - actually a spray this time - in the ear and almost instantly something that was almost like pebble of wax plopped out of my ear. Still didn't help much with the hearing though. Next I get the rubber syringe thing, which entails basically squirting some lukewarm water in your ear and waiting for the wax and water to flow out, all you end up with is water in your ear, as far as I can tell. Went back to the GP and he says there's still some wax in there so carry on with the eardrops. I had the exact same experience trying to watch Eurovision too!

Shocked at people getting GP appointments. I just get directed to an online form and then managed out. Option one - have you tried phoning 111? Option two - consider going to A&E? We’re sorry we are unable to help you on this occasion.

I did get my ears de-waxed by a GP a few years ago, but it did fuck all to help tinnitus. They were pretty bad - a nurse tried to do it first but couldn't get it out so had to fetch a doctor to finish the job.

The Times is covering microsuction today: "I had my ears ‘vacuumed’ — it’s so satisfying"

It's behind a paywall, but key points of this very positive £89 experience:

One minute you’re living in a waxy fishbowl, cringing at the sound of your own chewing and yelling at your partner to just speak up for God’s sake, then — shlrrrrp, shlrrrrp, glug, vroom — the pressure releases and you’re jumping at the ping of a microwave.
In my case, the microsuction followed an unsuccessful attempt at irrigation, during which the doctor — not my GP, but one near work that I knew offered it — grew increasingly despondent as the dam of wax held firm. Eventually she gave up, passing me the details of Hearology, a chain of clinics in central London (there are many others that provide similar services, along with some branches of Specsavers)....

And so it was that, last Tuesday, I found myself lying on a treatment couch as a nurse gently inserted a miniature cone into my ear, followed by a thin probe and . . . ooh. It’s hard to describe the precise sensation of wax being sucked out, except to say it brought to mind those videos of pythons eating small animals in which the shape of the prey remains visible as it slides down the snake’s body. Afterwards, I felt briefly dizzy, then oddly jumpy, startled by the unfamiliar clarity of bicycle bells and building works.

The next morning, this was replaced by a more uncomplicated sensation: complete elation. .... I’m not sure I’ve ever felt so popular as when word got out at The Times that I’d had my ears “done” and a procession of aurally frustrated correspondents passed by inquiring as to the details.

used a syringe on my own ears for the first time (after several days with olive oil and then OTEX™️)

it's kind of a pleasant sensation followed by an annoying sensation (= there's no way you don't get water all down you, maybe i shd do it in the bath lol)

hearing much better now but i think there's still wax in there (my tinnitus is no better but i wasn't expecting it to cure that, in conclusion never listen to swans live lads)