Plugged ear or something else?

KenP, thanks. Your advice is good but I am always reluctant to see a doctor for what I think will pass. This led me to doing without hear aids at lest 3 or 4 years longer than I should have waited. The condition seems to be passing, and it is the weekend so I’ll wait until at least Monday, no need to go to the emergency room. I have no pain. I have tested both aid’s placement bells in both ears, the right ear hears them clearly, the left doesn’t and it doesn’t hear anything well even with the correct aid installed. This is/was my best ear and it showed the greatest benefit of getting hearing aids. So it is missed more than a similar problem in the left ear world.

@Jerry_NJ said:

I cleaned the in-ear foot or cone or wax guard (not sure what it is called)

I’ve never heard the wax guard being referenced to as a “cone”. I could see a dome being called a “cone” though, but cleaning the cone would probably not be enough.

These are domes :

The white tiny thing that the finger is pointing to in this image is a wax guard:

Wax guards are not really made to be cleaned. I’m sure it is possible to clean them but I would not count on that. I got my first HA on July 18th. 3 days later I noticed a significant drop in the audio coming out of the aid. I checked the wax guard, and indeed it was clogged with wax. Unfortunately, at my first fitting I did not leave Costco with any wax guards. I tried to clean it, very carefully because I did not want to push wax into the speaker. I did clear what I could see but it did not do the job. It was after business hours so I was out of luck until the next day. The whole audio level problem was fixed once the wax guard was replaced.

And when it comes to cleaning wax out of my ears, I don’t consider the job done util I can get visual confirmation with an otoscope. It happened a few times there was more wax to remove than I thought. I got a digital otoscope through Amazon which allows me to perform a self-exam.

The same kind of hearing loss occurs to me when it’s time to replace the wax filter which in my hearing aids look like the tiny white thing which some call a wax guard. I think many brands of RIC hearing aids have a wax guard, the flexible dome that fits snug in the era canal. Beneath the dome is a wax filter, the tiny white object with a hole in it that can become plugged with wax, There is a filter remover that is a two inch long thin stick that has a tiney protrusion on one end and a new filter on the other. You stick the protrusion end in the hole of the plugged filter, give it a quarter turn to the left and pull out the old filter. Replace the old filter by pushing the new filter in the hole with turning it. Remove the two-inch stick and replace the outside guard and voila! you hear again (if that’s the problem). It’s a simple procedure that takes about a minute or two. The filter removers should be available from any audiologist. I get them free from COSTCO and I’ve seen them advertised on E-bay and Amazon. Who ever sold you your HAs must have them though some audiologists might want you to return the aids for repair so they can get richer rather than letting you know how simple the remedy is. Good Luck.

The sentence “Replace the old filter by pushing the new filter in the hole with turning it” should read “without turning it.” Sorry about the typo.

Jerry…After rereading your original post I realize that if your good ear hears both hearing aids, it seems unlikely that a plugged filter is the problem and it’s something going on in your head. I have had that happen when the wax got pushed right against the ear drum and nothing I could do would clean it out so a trip to the ear doctor who took his tool and dug it out, then flushed it with a big syringe of warm water. It could be time for medical intervention to find out what’s going on.

I’ve never been able to get the wax out of my ears at home. Usually I use peroxide for a couple of days to loosen it up, then head to the ‘minit clinic’ at CVS or another doc-in-the-box and have them washed out. Then I’m usually good for 3 or 4 months.

Jerry, sometimes you cal your audiologist or ENT’s office and the staff will tell you that there are no appointments available for weeks. DON’T ACCEPT THIS! Tell them this is an emergency (It truly is!).
If you can’t get an appointment today go to an urgent care place or even an emergency room and see a doctor today. Tell the doctor what happened and ask him/her if it would be appropriate to start taking high-dose Prednisone or Medrol. I believe that that is the usual treatment for sudden hearing loss. I can’t overemphasize this. Do it TODAY! Even if your hearing seems to be returning it might not return to as good as it was without IMMEDIATE intervention. I am not a doctor but I believe you should see one. Good luck.

Thanks, lots of unexpected dire warnings. Perhaps a fuller disclosure would make this tread of more value to me and others.

1. I do not have total loss in my left ear, but a significant reduction in hearing any frequency, this is improving in the last couple of days. I have used hydrogen peroxide this morning and let is soak, listening to the sound and tickle of bubbles, for at least 5 minutes. I did to both ears, did not discover any sigh of wax when draining into a paper towel. I then flushed each ear with warm water using a syringe- about two or three oz size. No sign of wax. I have also taken time to flush both ears when taking my daily shower.

2. I have a “bad” habit of taking a “Q-tip” soaked in hydrogen peroxide and used it to “scratch” inside of my ear. I just feels good and sometimes removes some wax as shown by the yellow on the tip. This may have resulted in me pushing some wax deeper in the ear.

So for what it is worth, that is the fuller story of my case. I’ll consider further Monday morning, but continue to believe I have a self healing (assuming I no longer exercise bad Q Tip practices) condition. Further I think if all of us went to the doctor every time we have a hiccup we’ll run medical costs into bankruptcy. I have Medicare and Medigap insurance so I can go any time I have a complaint and expect it to be fully paid. So my reluctance isn’t due to no money.

@keener: Click on the little pencil icon in the lower right of your post and you can edit your post. Then you can delete your correction.
If you like.

I use an old style BIC pen cap. It has a tapered tip. It has a concave inside surface. It kinda self-regulates as to how deep to go.
I totally agree with “just feels good”. And sometimes I haul out a wad of wax in the concave.
Think cocaine spoon

Thank you… I’m glad to learn things I don’t know.

It’s not a hiccup, Jerry. Taking good advice is a sign of intelligence.