I’ve just returned from SpecSavers where I had both ears ‘de waxed’ via micro-suction. I’d treated both with olive oil for 7 nights beforehand. The right ear, only partially blocked, took approx. 1 minute. The left ear was totally blocked, and took her approx. 30 minutes. She had to alternate the machine with forceps, and had a real struggle to tease out the deepest and oldest lump, which was made up of sloughed skin and hair, glued together with hard wax!
None of this hurt, but was a little uncomfortable towards the end.
I’m now left with quite significant tinnitus (high pitched ‘zinging’) in the left ear, and I wouldn’t say my hearng in that ear has improved significantly. The audiologist said this was not uncommon, and that the likelihood was all would settle down after a few days. I’m wondering if anyone on the forum has had a similar experience, with a positive resolution?
I can live with what I have, but it would be nice to have something to look forward to!
Ouch 30 mins… The first time I had it done, which was to remove compacted wax pushed in by earplugs for shooting over many years, it took no more than a couple of minutes each side. There was a significant volume of wax removed but no side effects.
That’s not good. What I was hoping you were going to report is blacker blacks, reduced noise floor along with greater transparency.
Equivalent to adding a ps555 to an ndx2 .
And all for £20.
Yes I did. I’d noticed what turned out to be a quite distinct drop off in volume via left ear, accompanied by mild tinnitus. My wife, ex-practice nurse, used her old auroscope to take a look, and was horrified that eardrum was totally obscured by wax!
The audiologist’s preventative advice was that anyone prone to excess wax production should, once ear is clear, put olive oil in overnight once a month, which will prevent wax hardening and keep it mobile.
Whilst we’re on this (slightly queasy) topic, a tale of warning from the last couple of months.
I’d been using some Beyerdynamic Soul Byrd earphones to listen to stuff in bed without disturbing Mrs Ebor. They make a nice snug seal around the ear canal, so don’t leak sound and disturb her. All was well until I went through a phase of falling asleep whilst listening, although this didn’t seem a problem at the time. You can see where this is going, though: one day I wake up feeling like someone’s stuffed cotton wool into my right ear. Nurse took a look and, sure enough, nicely blocked with goo the same colour as the soon-to-be-not President of you-know-where. I put the Soul Byrds away and with a bit of olive oil my ears thankfully sorted themselves out, though it took a good week. I now listen on my Grado SR60s, which are much less convenient and leak sound like crazy, but at least they don’t bung up my ears.
Hi James. Slow but definite improvement, but still noticeable tinnitus in my left ear. Rock and metal music is more difficult to listen to - some of the high frequency stuff is positively jarring! Still relatively early days I suppose. Were it not for Covid I’d be going for a proper hearing test, but I’ll wait patiently for a few months, by which time I may be in a much better place hearing wise. Small problems compared to many, but cheers for asking!
Thanks Tim - hopefully things will be returning fully to normal (hearing wise) for you soon. I was curious as to how you were getting on as I’ve got to go and pick up some spare glasses and wondered if I should get my ears checked as well whilst there.
I think (with no issues I’m aware of) that I’ll leave it for now.
Your comment resonates,I know there are things I would normally have checked but am reluctant to do so.
So many people must be putting up with symptoms because they are too concerned about visiting hopsitals for clinics, imaging, endoscopy etc, probably don’t want to pester GPs they can’t physically access, and just put up with problems with eyesight they’d normally be staright to the opticians to investigate.
I have had an ear wax buildup issue for quite a few years now, and I had them cleaned professionally about 18 months back.
However, with the current situation, I wanted to try doing it in house. So I purchased from Amazon, an inner ear camera, which is just a small lighted camera probe thing for $30 cad. It came with a few personal slip on covers, so others could also use it. It plugs into your cell phone, and the light and camera showed me the wax buildup very clearly.
So, I also ordered from Amazon, an ear flushing unit for about 20 bucks, and after a few experimental tries, and a few more experienced flushes; with some in-between ear camera cell phone vids, my wife and I were able to clear out my ears, safely and completely.
I now have the balance knob on my SN2 set to 12 o’clock.
And just so you know, the camera probe is very safe and does not come anywhere near your ear drum.
And the camera is useful for other things as well, like when you lose something down a drain or need to inspect any small aperture.