Going deaf - aka excess earwax build up; how to cure it

[trevor saxe-coburg-gotha]

If you ride a lot and wear ear plugs you may well find that you're having to shell out £60+ to get your ears syringed. GPs tend not to do it now, and will do anything to put you off.

Worse still, once you've had them syringed chances are you'll need them doing again...and again, and again. In fact, the latest device is more like a small hoover that sucks the wax out.

Anyway, I had mine done late last autumn - and the other day my right ear was clogged and I couldn't hear much at all.

But I've got a solution that's almost free and works really well. You'll probably do a similar thing, but here's how I sort it out.

Get a small plastic bottle with a tip on the end that can fit into your ear - not far, only about half an inch. Fill it with olive oil. Squirt it into your ear. Get your little finger in there and prod it around, pretty vigorously. Repeat this a few times. Olive oil really does attack anything with wax in it - try it on a candle. It melts it.

When you've done this, just use a cotton bud to clean your ear. Don't stick it very far in - there's no need. Chances are it'll come out really filthy. Do this a few times and you'll probably find your hearing's started to improve. Put more olive oil down there, and basically repeat each stage of the process. In my experience, it's a 10-15 minute process to regain all your hearing and remove 90% of the wax.

Iirc some branches of Spec Savers now offer the treatment, but because of Covid I'm not sure they want to get involved. GPs, as said, are also trying to wriggle off the hook. But in any case, my solution is actually better than the results I got with Spec Savers. If the wax is really stubborn and there's a bad build up, just be prepared to wait a day or two for the olive oil to do its work. The rest is down to more olive oil, getting a digit down there, and some careful work with a cotton bud. I've had to do this a few times now since last year and it's worked very well each time.
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"Life is a sexually transmitted disease and the mortality rate is one hundred percent."

Mobylette Type 50 ---> Raleigh Grifter ---> Neval Minsk 125

[Ste]

Pardon?

[chickenstrip]

[arry]

[recman]

I had my ears syringed at work 32 years ago after the hearing test during the initial medical.
The amount of wax that came out was embarrassing.
I hadn't realised how much my hearing was being impaired until I put my old Walkman* headphones back on.


*cassette player of course

[A100man]

Trevor, I think someone's hacked into your account.
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[xX-Alex-Xx]

[Ste]

fite me now irl yfpos

(What are you wearing?)

[chickenstrip]

[Ste]

We Found 429 Clips With "Challenger Tank"

[chickenstrip]

[Kawasaki Jimbo]

[Ste]

[ThatDippyTwat]

He's right. I would say be careful though, I have a punctured eardrum, and any liquid managing to make it's way in that far will make me scream like a kid watching the ice cream van drive away...
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'98 VFR800 (touring) - '12 VFR800 Crosrunner (Commuting) - '01 KDX220 (Big Green Antisocial Machine)

[chickenstrip]

[Ste]

[chickenstrip]

[trevor saxe-coburg-gotha]

I wouldn't have mentioned but for two things. Firstly, syringing is quite bloody dear if you have to go outside normal GP surgery services (and like I said, they don't want to do it any more - not where I live, anyway). Not that long ago, it would've been one of the various jobs a practice nurse would do - but now what you get is something like "just put olive oil down there for a couple of weeks then get back in touch". What happens is, this does work - kind of. And you think, hmm, okay, it's a bit better. So you try to forget about it. But then it usually gets bad again - and you're back to square one.

Secondly, with this virus shit, nobody wants to do anything like this because of all the extra hassle with new hygiene procedures and what-not.

Another point - once you've followed the steps I pointed out, you've got to ideally follow up with something like this: Keep your ear plugs moistened with a liberal amount of olive oil so that any residual wax can't solidify again. Also, you'll find your ear plugs work better - it's similar to putting your head underwater in the bath. When the earplugs are wet with the olive oil they easily create an effect like being underwater. You don't even have to push them in very far. I keep mine in an old 35mm film container and always make sure there's a mil or two of olive oil in it. Yeah it's a bit messy but it's not too bad at all.
____________________
"Life is a sexually transmitted disease and the mortality rate is one hundred percent."

Mobylette Type 50 ---> Raleigh Grifter ---> Neval Minsk 125

[MCN]

[MCN]

One should only stick one's elbow in one's ear.
So the saying goes.

But for the persistent:

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/earwax-blockage/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20353007

Ear Candleing. WTUF? 🙄
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Disclaimer: The comments above may be predicted text and not necessarily the opinion of MCN.

[Chuffin Nora]

[gbrand42]

[Kawasaki Jimbo]

[Riejufixing]

[andym]

I just use a Bic pen lid to scrape any crap out my lugs