Non-motoring > Clearing ears Miscellaneous
Thread Author: smokie Replies: 25
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 Tue 18 Jun 24 15:34 
 Clearing ears - smokie
My left ear totally blocked a couple of weeks back. I tried olive oil and the sodium bicarbonate ear stuff from the chemist but it didn't clear. My daughter brought over some Otex Plus which is hydrogen peroxide and urea and makes your ears fizz - almost to the point of being tortured, I kid you not.

Anyway after some days even that hadn't cleared it (along with the Chinese ear digging endoscope tool I bought some years back) but it did fell like it was getting somewhere.

Nevertheless over the weekend I decided if it wasn't better by Monday I'd pay the £70 for what used to be the free NHS ear cleanout (some places wanted £90 - £120 for the same). They use vacuum now rather than irrigation. And at most the earliest appt was a couple of weeks away.

So on Saturday I read that you can buy 3% hydrogen peroxide (£5.80 for 500ml at Amazon) and water it down a bit and it'd be like Otex Plus (£5 for 10ml), so I ordered some. When it came, rather well packaged, it said you must use gloves with this product. SWMBO and daughter instantly forbade me from using it but I'm reading all over the place that it's OK used with care.

What do the team think? Have I got the right stuff, if I water it down?

www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CGJFHCBM?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

eyeandear.org.au/patients-visitors/fact-sheets/hydrogen-peroxide-for-ear-infections-wax/


(The ear has cleared today without the trip to the Dick Turpin ear clinic btw... :-) )

EDIT: And I did a returns on Amazon and they have refunded but said they don't want the product back.
Last edited by: smokie on Tue 18 Jun 24 at 15:36
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 Tue 18 Jun 24 15:39 
 Clearing ears - Manatee
I liked the one star review.

"Discoloration on dog. Didn't work."
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 Tue 18 Jun 24 15:41 
 Clearing ears - Bromptonaut
I never have a problem with ear wax etc but Mrs B does. So did her Mother, so does our daughter.

There's a place in Weedon that does the suction thing. She softens the wax with olive oil before her appointment. Given the need to do that over a few days a wait time over a week isn't a show stopper.

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 Tue 18 Jun 24 15:45 
 Clearing ears - smokie
I'd already been "suffering" for about 2 weeks. I was surprised it was in such demand but closer inspection showed that often they don't do 5 day weeks. Like I suspect SpecSavers have one or two qualified people who visit a different branch each day in the region.

Anyway the ? was really about whether the chemical was appropriate :-)


But on the subject of olive oil, does she buy the OTC stuff at the chemist or just decant some from the cooking supply, which was what I did?
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 Tue 18 Jun 24 16:10 
 Clearing ears - Bromptonaut
>> But on the subject of olive oil, does she buy the OTC stuff at the
>> chemist or just decant some from the cooking supply, which was what I did?

I'm pretty well certain it's decanted from the kitchen. Cheaper version for frying rather than expensive extra virgin stuff for salads.

One of the jokes about change, or maybe just a progression, in my lifetime is olive oil moving from something Mrs B's Mum got in Boots for her ears to it occupying half an aisle in Sainsburys.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Tue 18 Jun 24 at 16:10
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 Tue 18 Jun 24 17:06 
 Clearing ears - bathtub tom
I can remember when olive oil bottles had "not suitable for human consumption" on them (probably fifty years ago)!

I tend to tip my head sideways when I'm washing my hair (the little I've left) to flush out.
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 Tue 18 Jun 24 17:02 
 Clearing ears - Manatee
TBH I'd give the 3% solution a go.

Of course you should wear gloves if you're going to slosh it about, it will sting like hell if you have a cut but you (note the 'you') can "test on a small patch". If that goes well you can test on a more sensitive small patch and so on, working up to the lugholes.

You can't be in thrall to health and safety. No wonder Sunak thought we needed a minister for common sense:)
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 Tue 18 Jun 24 17:15 
 Clearing ears - James Loveless
I regard myself as something of a specialist in this. I have been troubled by stubborn ear-wax for many years, in more recent times made worse by the need to wear hearing aids.

Often you can get the wax to drop out if it's softened with warm oil, which means using a dropper with your head on one side and staying in that position for a few minutes, before letting the stuff run out and mopping it up with a tissue.

A very convenient alternative is to squirt Earol - available from Boots.

I wouldn't use bicarbonate (or peroxide) again - fairly aggressive stuff to apply to a delicate organ.

Nor would I poke anything in my ear - ever. Despite my advice, SWMBO managed to perforate her eardrum with cotton-wool buds. Not good. In any case, using buds tends to push the wax further in, not get it out.

However, the only treatment I now use is suction - at Specsavers or independent hearing places. I would never go back to the old syringing method, which was far too brutal and risky in the hands of poorly-trained nurses - not that it's available at doctors' surgeries any more. Yes, I know you have to pay and it probably should be available on the NHS.

The worst experience I have had with an ear was after getting what turned out to be a very nasty fungal infection, which the GHP misdiagnosed as a bacterial infection (apparently very easy to do) and unsuccessfully treated with antibiotic. The ear became completely blocked and I had to go to hospital for suction - the first of two appointments. Believe me when I say it was the most painful thing I have ever experienced. The doctor apologised afterwards, but there wasn't much else he could have done.
Last edited by: James Loveless on Tue 18 Jun 24 at 17:19
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 Tue 18 Jun 24 18:03 
 Clearing ears - Robin O'Reliant
>>
>>
>> Nor would I poke anything in my ear - ever. Despite my advice, SWMBO managed
>> to perforate her eardrum with cotton-wool buds. Not good. In any case, using buds tends
>> to push the wax further in, not get it out.
>>
>>

As a former doctor of mine used to say, never put anything in your ear that's smaller than your elbow.

I had suction eighteen months ago and Mrs O'Reliant is due on Friday. So much better than syringing.
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 Tue 18 Jun 24 17:17 
 Clearing ears - Biggles
You need to wear gloves as it is a bleaching agent. Diluted would not be much of an issue but I wouldn't want to flood my ears with it. Good for using in the bathroom to kill any mould without the chlorine smell. When it dries there is no chemical residue.
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 Tue 18 Jun 24 17:20 
 Clearing ears - Manatee
>> You need to wear gloves as it is a bleaching agent.

Certainly is. Hence the discoloration of the dog I should think.
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 Tue 18 Jun 24 17:41 
 Clearing ears - Ted

NHS audiology look after my lugholes, having two of their excellent hearing aids. A bonus is that they are at the community hospital which is 5 minutes down the road. They use a sucky pump after I've used the olive oil, held in with cotton wool, ffor a week. ( They also do them while I wait ). If I call in for batteries or tubes, I ask the nurse to give me a quicky with the otoscope and I don't seem to produce much now.

Smokes comment about Amazon returns struck a chord today. I had a small furniture trolley delivered last week for use in the garage. It had a wheel missing from one of the castors.
A quick response from the sender tells me that a new one is on the way and they don't need a return. Shame really, I can convert the faulty one to a three wheeler, which will work just as welland could have had my money back ! Still, good service though !

Ted
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 Tue 18 Jun 24 22:24 
 Clearing ears - bathtub tom
>> They also do them while I wait

As opposed to leaving them there and picking them up later?
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 Tue 18 Jun 24 23:37 
 Clearing ears - smokie
I have hearing aids too Ted but the local hospital audiology isn't manned all the time and def don't do wax removal. They used to have a drop-in repair session once a week but that's gone. The hospital can give me batteries but any other consumables I have to apply through a web page which goes to the main hospital in Reading and they are eventually posted to me - seems to take about 4 weeks. That's progress I suppose...

A mate got his through SpecSavers and they seem to happily deal with drop-ins for pretty much any reason, when they have supplied. I was told as mine were from the hospital I can't use SpecSavers.
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 Tue 18 Jun 24 17:43 
 Clearing ears - legacylad
My hearing issue cleared up the day after I got divorced.
I was actually sitting on a rucsac in Lima airport that day..it must have been the long flight from Europe :-)
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 Tue 18 Jun 24 21:38 
 Clearing ears - martin aston
Charges for removal vary.
I had mine done last week at a hearing centre, and the charge was £50 whether it was one or two ears. This would be reduced to £30 if they did an examination and decided it was not a wax issue. I got an appointment within 24 hours of booking online.
She started with a fine suction tube then, as this was too aggressive to ouse near the ear drum, switched to a gentle water jet device. It was very satisfying to hear well again.
Last edited by: martin aston on Tue 18 Jun 24 at 21:38
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 Fri 21 Jun 24 21:06 
 Clearing ears - John Boy
Brompt, you say you don't have a problem with ear wax, is yours dry?
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 Sat 22 Jun 24 08:09 
 Clearing ears - Bromptonaut
>> Brompt, you say you don't have a problem with ear wax, is yours dry?

TBH I've never really thought about it.

Mrs B, her Mother and our Daughter all suffer(ed) with it accumulating in their ear canals to the point of causing discomfort and hearing loss. I've never had that. Occasionally the odd bit pops out if I scratch an itch and at one stage it collected on the ear buds for my phone but that's about it.
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 Sat 22 Jun 24 09:06 
 Clearing ears - legacylad
Fortunately never suffered from an excess of ear wax..I wonder if hot daily showers and regular swimming clears it out ?
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 Sat 22 Jun 24 10:00 
 Clearing ears - Falkirk Bairn
A very little almond oil (warmed is better than cold) seems to have worked for me for 70+ years.
Applied at night + bit of cotton wool in the ears, seems to have done the work by the next morning - softens the wax.
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 Sat 22 Jun 24 11:42 
 Clearing ears - Kevin
>.. regular swimming clears it out ?

I had a bacterial ear infection last year. Sometimes known as 'swimmer's ear' because it can be a result of swimming in dodgy water. No idea how I got it because I hadn't been swimming in Basingstoke Canal for ages. Needed antibacterial eardrops to clear it up.
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 Sat 22 Jun 24 10:14 
 Clearing ears - John Boy
It would appear that those with dry ear wax do not produce the kind of sweat which causes body odour. it's certainly true in my case. I'm Caucasian so I'm in the 2% mentioned below:

www.geneticlifehacks.com/ear-wax-and-body-odor-its-genetic/
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 Sat 22 Jun 24 12:57 
 Clearing ears - Zero
Damn, 21 posts on earwax. Must be an old man thing
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 Sat 22 Jun 24 15:54 
 Clearing ears - legacylad
Must be an old man thing
>>
Sexist pig
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 Sat 22 Jun 24 16:11 
 Clearing ears - tyrednemotional
>> Damn, 21 posts on earwax. Must be an old man thing
>>

Pardon?
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 Sat 22 Jun 24 19:14 
 Clearing ears - Robin O'Reliant
>>
>>
>> Pardon?
>>

A quarter past seven
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