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Irrigation tools?

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I have both eczema detritus and wax buildup in my left ear, already the poorest numbers.
Lately I’ve gotten ads for various irrigators for cleaning my ear canal(s). I have no doubt that irrigation done by an audiologist or is beneficial, having had a few, but wonder:

Are the commercially available, intended for home use, irrigators effective? When I went in for service (my rechargeable batteries were dying; spec has 30 hours of use, but mine were only managing about 12), my (new; I’ve moved from where I had them for over 2 years - see my prior threads) audiologist said, “You don’t need these molds; try these domes.” - and sure enough, they worked without feedback.

But my first insertion with the left ear had no sound. Pulled it out and found the tip waxed. Cleaned it with my fingernail, and tried again. Still no sound, but this time it came out with a large glob of gray wax. No wonder I couldn’t hear!!!

That cleared it up. But I want to be able to clean my ears. Clearly my careful use of QTips wasn’t getting it, and instead, despite my efforts to pull down, and then out, anything near my drum, was packing my ear.

Do these things (the commercial home-use irrigators) work???

If so, what’s the favorite one, short of a water pik (which I effectively used on my sinus surgery roto-rooter job, but very expensive compared to the various hand-held ear models I’ve seen)?

Thanks.

L8R
Skip

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I use a rubbery bulb syringe. You control the pressure by how hard you squeeze and fill in a bowl. I irrigate over a sink. I do this after using debrox or generic equivalent.

WH

The audiologists here won’t approve. I use waxsol for 4-5 nights. Then get a 10ml syringe and warm water. And syringe my L ear out over a hand basin.

You need to be careful with the amount of pressure you use.

It’s not recommended by any of the medical professionals that we do this ourselves. We can damage the ear drum if you not exceptionally careful.

Edited

I use a digital otoscope so I can see what’s going on. Hydrogen peroxide, or ear wax removal liquid from the drugstore,15 minutes. Then syringe bulb with warm water. If it gets irritated, I might use a little cortisone cream, or if it gets itchy, some lidocaine until things get normal. 25 year user. No damage…yet.

In reply to @Deaf_piper

@Deaf_piper said:

The audiologists here won’t approve. I use waxsol for 4-5 nights. Then get a 10ml syringe and warm water. And syringe my L ear out over a hand basin.

This is fine as long as you use warm water, go gently, and do it sitting down. And know your eardrum is intact. If the water is too cold it can make you pretty dizzy, hence the sitting down. It doesn’t last too long.

But if someone has ongoing issues with ear canal eczema it might be worth reviewing options with an or if not an ENT possibly a dermatologist. You’d want to use something to soften and clear the wax that isn’t going to make eczema issues worse. If the eczema is significant it may also increase the risk of infection with water flushing. I have at least one patient with pretty bad eczema who regularly needs medicated drops to calm it down in their ear canals.

Edited
@Neville said:

But if someone has ongoing issues with ear canal eczema it might be worth reviewing options with an ENT or if not an ENT possibly a dermatologist. You’d want to use something to soften and clear the wax that isn’t going to make eczema issues worse. If the eczema is significant it may also increase the risk of infection with water flushing. I have at least one patient with pretty bad eczema who regularly needs medicated drops to calm it down in their ear canals.

My detritus is minimal, and I don’t have an itch issue, so the eczema merely contributes to the level of ‘stuff’ in my ear.

prescribed occasional steroid drops, but ‘occasional’ has meant that I usually forget to do it.

I also had a pain issue with the mold(s - slightly altered yielding 3 versions, each slightly smaller at the pain point) in my left ear (the one with the wax/detritis glob - very gray in color), but my current rep (recall we moved recently) asserts I don’t need them, and, indeed, domes seem to be doing the trick for not-feedback.

So my left ear has been troublesome from the start, one way or another, and I’m continuing to attempt an empty canal (to go with the empty head :smiling_face:) so that I don’t again wind up with an occluded path from outside to drum.

But to the ‘gently’ part of irrigation, however managed (syringe, bulb, pumped-water gadget), it seems to me that if it’s not adequate pressure behind the water, it wouldn’t dislodge something laying against the drum (my only interest; grunge, so long as the path isn’t blocked, or the drum impacted, is merely a ‘feature’ and shouldn’t represent an occlusion, sez he of little informed opinion). And thus my concern that such irrigations would actually be helpful.

I suppose I might wind up going to a digital otoscope and a set of hand tools such as my very-elderly and -deaf aunt had wielded by HER audiologist to remove her gunge from her ears; somewhere I actually have such as set of tools but couldn’t tell you where they are now, as I didn’t find them effective, and was reluctant to go deep-probing without some visual guidance, given the hard/sharp nature of the ends relative to my eardrum!

@Skip said:

But to the ‘gently’ part of irrigation, however managed (syringe, bulb, pumped-water gadget), it seems to me that if it’s not adequate pressure behind the water, it wouldn’t dislodge something laying against the drum (my only interest; grunge, so long as the path isn’t blocked, or the drum impacted,

You might be surprised how effective gentle water irrigation is. When I feel plugged from wax it usually takes a couple maybe 3 cycles of debrox and irrigation before chunks stop coming out. Let the peroxide in the debrox bubble up and loosen the wax. It is gentle but effective. You really don’t want to overdo it here.

WH

Thanks. I have a bulb syringe and H2O2, as well as the steroid drops. And, as well, rubbing alcohol to dry remaining water, if any, after a rinse. Perhaps I’ll give that a try.

Anyone reading this thread have recommendations for a home electronic otoscope?

In reply to @Skip

@Skip said:

it seems to me that if it’s not adequate pressure behind the water, it wouldn’t dislodge something laying against the drum (my only interest; grunge, so long as the path isn’t blocked, or the drum impacted, is merely a ‘feature’ and shouldn’t represent an occlusion

Hearing aids (domes or molds or custom aid cases) push wax toward the eardrum, where it can eventually form a blockage, against the eardrum or short of it. For the last three years or so, I’ve been irrigating my ears every night with plain warm water in a bulb syringe. Since I started doing that, wax has been almost entirely a non-issue for me, whereas before I had to change constantly, and every audiologist visit included a cleanout. Maybe this practice wouldn’t work so well if my ears were sensitive to moisture.

Have you looked at PSI ratings for water piks? Seems like a terrible idea to aim that into your ear.

@x475aws said:

Have you looked at PSI ratings for water piks? Seems like a terrible idea to aim that into your ear.

I’ve not, actually, but wouldn’t think of buying one for that purpose (my teeth-cleaning regimen is beyond what most folks would consider rational, but I have all 32, and the only incursions were 3 tiny cavities when I was 26, due to, according to the dentist of the time, a change in mouth chemistry common at about that age). I just got the WP for my sinus excavation purpose, with a specific tip for that, and then have never had one in my hands since (~20 years ago) :smiling_face:

Thanks for the concern, however!

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