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Ear Canal Camera

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I’ve read a couple of messages about ear canal cameras for wax removal. Can anyone recommend a specific camera that they’ve used and has good quality images. I’ve seen a couple on Amazon that work with iPhone. I want a camera just to check ear canals occassionally. Thanks

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Hey, I hope you get some answers here, cuz I’ve just used a small flashlight and magnification mirror to “peer” into my ear canals. I can’t see much beyond the first quarter inch or so, I’m guessing?

BE careful of trying to remove wax from your ear canals, cuz some can be protective. You can risk poking yourself real good or even giving yourself a case of otitis. I had an overly-enthusiastic audiologist ages ago who used an ear camera to show ear wax on a video screen. He’d whip a stick out of his pencil can, scrape that out of my ears, wipe the stick off on his lab coat and put it back in the pencil can.

Goes without saying, I got BAD otitis real soon afterwards. :unamused:

I bought my otoscope from BestBuy as a local store just happened to have one in stock a couple of months ago. It connects to my android Samsung S21 using WiFi. Bluetooth would be better, but currently only WiFi handles the high video bitrate needed for a decent view.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/bebird-visual-ear-cleaner-m9s/6544958.p?skuId=6544958174

If anyone gets one using WiFi, the key to getting it connected is to turn on airplane mode on your cellphone, then connect with the app and let it turn on the WiFi and connect to the otoscope. The scope connects directly to the WiFi on the phone and not to your wireless network.

I have the ear camera corded version a few years ago. I find that an uncorded ear camera is better. The plastic hook as shown works to pull out earwax. I would use EarMD to soften the ear wax so it’s easier to remove the wax.

My provider has an ear canal camera. It’s very good!

I’ve had major reconstructive surgery on both ears. GPs have no idea what they’re looking at with their instruments if they happen to look into ears. I’ve been warned against letting a GP clean the wax out of my ears, with good reasons that it would take too long to go into here.

I can’t imagine trying to clean wax out of my own ear canals using some tool. My provider uses the camera in order to tell the condition of wax before a hearing test and for other purposes. They certainly DO NOT try to clean the wax out of my ear canals.

@jeffrey said:

I’ve been warned against letting a GP clean the wax out of my ears

The bad part is that it is usually the nurse and not the GP who does the wax removal. Wax removal can be sort of an art, and if the patient is on blood thinners - look out if you get a bleeder. I forgot to ask once because I was in a hurry to get to lunch. Got a bleeder and too over a half hour to get it stopped. Too soon old, too late smart.

In reply to @jeffrey

I agree that no one should try to remove wax from ears themselves. I want the camera to inspect and decide if wax should be removed professionally. The last time I went for what I thought was wax removal, the found a from my .

In reply to @gorgeguy

I agree that it’s best not to use a GP for wax removal. I go only to an who uses suction to remove the wax. This has to be done very carefully and with training. The GP’s I went to used water under pressure. It took a long time and didn’t work for me.

One ENT that I visited for a long time had a PA who did the wax cleaning. That was great because she was properly trained and good at it. The advantage was that I didn’t have to wait weeks to get an appointment with the ENT. Eventually she left and the Doc went back to doing it himself.

My audiologist cleans my ears using some kind of probe thing. I don’t enjoy it but have never gotten injured.

Anyway, wax isn’t much of an issue for me anymore since I started using a bulb to squirt warm water into my ears every night. I used to have lots of wax and had to change often, but not anymore.

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