Do it yourself earwax removal

Question and Answer
#1

First of all sorry for my bad tech english.

I know doctors are the best way to go for a professional ear wax cleaning, I just want to ask your home methods to “limit” this problem waiting to go to the doctor because I can’t afford enough money for that 1/month. So my strategy is to limit this problem by myself cleaning my ears 1/week and go to the doc one time out 3 months.

Btw all this is not for me but for my old aunt. She lives now in a rest home so I can’t clean her ears at her home anymore and unfortunately nurses are not able to clean her ears or just maybe they get bored to do that.
I bought this small otoscope for her and it’s a quite good tool to see her inner ears. As said her wax is growing up week after week because I’ve met her today and I checked the wax level by the otoscope and it’s much more than the “normal” level when she lived at her home.
When I took care of her I cleaned her ears putting some drops of this specific oil based on dimethylbenzene and almond oil. I put the drops when she went to bed and the drops lied there for a couple of hours. I went to her home the next day and I used a syringe without its needle full of warm water and spray the water inside her ears. I repeated that operation for 5 minutes and a bit of wax came out.

Now I’d like to know if there’re (let’s say…) easier/faster ways to remove ear wax at home because I can’t do this job anymore and nurses are not (enough) able to operate with the syringe method.
I searched a bit on my local amazon and found these tools BUT feedbacks are terrible:

  1. Spray bottle. I think this is the tool with best feedbacks. I ask only for the spray bottle, not for the other tools because I won’t use them anyhow.
  2. For babies, electric.
  3. Pen shaped, electric.
  4. Gun shaped, electric.
  5. Pen shaped, electric. I don’t understand if it sucks as well or only vibrates.
  6. Corkscrew shaped.
  7. Corkscrew shaped, electric.

I’d be glad to hear your opinions, experiences and suggestions on diy wax removal at home.

#2

So I tend to have a lot of ear wax build up. What I do, which I read here, is use a bulb and rinse out my ears almost every day in the shower. If she is able to do that it would probably go a long way. I went from having to change the wax guards every 3 days to well over a week. Made a big difference :slight_smile:

#3

Unfortunately she can’t do this operation by herself but I could tell that to the nurse, maybe I can buy the bulb and give it to her next time. This is a daily solution for “maintenance” but what about a removal of an average amount of wax?

#4

What my medical provider does for complaints of wax is to use Debrox three nights in a row and then come in for an irrigation. If this were done a few times a month I suspect it would take care of the problem. So basically what you are/were doing, but replace the syringe with a bulb syringer likely makes it simpler

#5

This is the bulb syringer you talk about, right? Is the bulb or the spray bottle (1.) method better?

#6

I think either would do fine. I’m guessing bulb syringe is cheaper and easier to maintain.

#7

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I would buy something like this. The dropper to soften earwax and the bulb to wash the ear until the wax comes out. There are different brands out there.

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#8

Yes, what Magical Fairy said. I have used the similar product for many years with great success. I was initially directed to this by my primary care doctor, over 45 years ago.

https://www.amazon.com/Murine-Ear-Wax-Removal-System-0-5/dp/B000AMG8SG

#9

There are 2 different types of ear wax. Genetically we produce soft or hard wax. My 90 year old mother produces hard wax. Her Doctor of Otolaryngology advises her to fill each ear with mineral oil nightly, then drain onto a towel. Of course she doesn’t do this routine nightly, but if she does it once every couple of days, her ear canal stays reasonably open. She requires manual cleaning about every 4 to 6 months. To further aggravate her situation she has very narrow ear canals.

The problem with relying on nurses to clean out patients ears is that ruptured ear drums are not uncommon. The cost of having the doctor doing this routine cleaning is, in my opinion, very reasonable under Medicare.

#10

Dimethylbenzene is Xylene, a banned chemical in most of the world. Apart from the fact that it is a serious carcinogen, it will easily penetrate the thin tissue of the eardrum and damage even kill the nerves causing deafness

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#11

I´m wondering why you mention dimethylbenzene?
I don´t see it mentioned in the comments above.
Could you be more specific…

#12

It is mentioned in OP’s original post.

#13

My aunt’s right ear produces much more wax than the left one and it’s more hairy as well, moreover both canals are narrow. Last year the doctor visited her and cleaned her ears and said the cause of wax is hearing aids so I think it’ll be a never ending battle against ear wax because aids are necessary for her. As said above I met her yesterday and I saw her right ear’s wax was spreaded circularly on the ear walls occluding about the third part of the canal. I asked her if nurses cleaned her by the syringe method last week and she answered they didn’t, they just used a “sock”! I talked to the rest home’s owner -which is another nurse- and he said: “the canal is free, we used the syringe method”. What a liar! I know the shape of wax removed by warm water spray.
Tomorrow I’ll take her out for a visit (to pump up her hearing aids volume) and I’ll clean her right ear by myself hoping the wax will be tender enough!
My aunt can’t afford money to pay a doctor every month for a professional wax removal and only putting drops does nothing. Here in Italy old people can book a visit to a public hospital for free but they have to wait a couple of months! Consider I booked this visit for her last month (visit + ears cleaning + audio tests) and the first available date will be on feb '22.

Amazing! I’ll stop using it immediately. So the alternatives are:

  • Debrox: Glycerin; urea peroxide; aqua; propylene glycol; sodium lauroyl sarcosinate; citricacid.
  • Carbamide peroxide based cleaners, but they’re difficult to find in my country.
    This other product’s quite common here. It’s based on sweet almond oil, Blackcurrant Oil and many other ingredients that seem to be natural.
    What do you think is better for ear wax, debrox or otosan?

About the bulb
Of course it can’t be opened to be cleaned from bacteria, fungus, mildew and so on, so how to keep it cleaned inside?
Anyway I’ll try with the bulb method for first but my curiosity about the spray bottle efficiency remains, I mean you can almost continuously pump 16.9oz (1/2 litre) of warm water inside your ears using a very small tip so you can get a quite high pressure.

#14

Oh yes, I see it now. Yes, sensible to avoid anything ototoxic

#15

In regards to the bulb, there are bulbs that come apart. I got one from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08171JRVY?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

And it works well.

#16

Regarding the ear syringes, i found a very simple way to keep my ears clean.
In fact, my otolaryngologist even asked me what i was doing.
I accidentally found that when I shower every day all I need to do is get some soapy water
into my ears and leave it there.
I use palmolive green bar soap. It actually softens the wax and once a week I
use a small ear syringe to flush out my ears. Keeps my ears super clean.
I first noticed it because I had been rubbing the insides of my ears with soapy fingers
to get rid of the oil and wax I could reach. After a few days a large lump of wax fell out of
one of my ears. i looked at it and it was soft and watery form being dissolved by the soap.
so I realized this was great. Eventually i got it down pat and just soap up my ears and make sure
I can feel the soapy water go all the way inside. Then just once or twice a week with the syringe
and I haven’t had any wax in a couple of years.
Just a couple of holes in my head :slight_smile:

#17

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This is what I use along with Food Grade 3% Hydrogen Peroxide solution.
Add 1/3 of solution to bottle and the rest is filled with distilled water.

Sometimes you need to put natural soap in ear to let the wax get soften and then use the cleaning system.

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#18

Just water, actually, is nearly as good as anything else at softening ear wax. Water stuck long-term in the ear canal can provide a happy environment for bateria. Frequent flushing and individual predisposition (e.g. diabetes) can reduce ear canal ph and increase risk of infection. But for a (relatively) young person with intact eardrums and healthy ear canals that drain normally, water can work perfectly well to soften wax.

The device Terost recommends would be a nice option for the OP. Those tips moderate the pressure and divide the water into 3 streams that are directed away from the eardrum, so chance of perforation would be low.

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