Read on to discover how best to deal with ear wax removal in Portsmouth. In this article you’ll learn:
- The causes of ear wax build-up
- The best and saftest method for ear wax removal, and
- How you can reduced build up of ear wax in future
What is ear wax?
Ears secrete an oil called cerumen, which is believed to have antibacterial properties to protect our ears. The cerumen combines with dust/dead skin cells/debris and becomes ear wax.
Why does the wax build up and block my ears?
The ears natural way of getting rid of wax is to transport it out of the ear as the skin grows – the skin in the ears actually grows outwards (a bit like a conveyer belt) so that small amounts of soft wax move out of the ear and most likely come out when you’re bathing or showering without you even realising it.
Sometimes, however, the ears self-cleaning process doesn’t work as well as it should. This could be for various reasons, such as the shape of the ear canal or the consistency of the wax (hard/dry wax is harder for the ear to get rid of). If you have very narrow ear canals they can also have a tendency to block up more easily, and hearing aid users may also have more issues as they are effectively pushing wax back into their ears when putting their hearing aids in.
What can I do about ear wax build up?
Sometimes, if caught in time, using some olive oil such as Earol to soften the wax might be enough to stop the build-up. However, if there is a significant amount of wax and especially if this has become impacted, ear drops alone may not solve the issue and you may need to have the wax removed.
What methods of ear wax removal are available?
The main methods of wax removal are:
- Irrigation, more commonly known as ‘ear syringing’ where the wax is washed out of the ear using water
- Dry tool removal, where a special instrument is used to hook out the wax manually from the ear
- Microsuction, where gentle suction is used to remove the wax whilst viewing the ear using a microscope
Which method is best?
Traditionally in the past for ear wax removal in Portsmouth, you might have been offered ear irrigation or ‘ear syringing’ at your GP surgery but this method is now becoming much more difficult to find, with very few GPs offering it.
Dry tool removal is a viable method of wax removal but this is only suitable for removing hard wax that is close to the entrance of the ear canal.
Ear wax removal via microsuction is generally seen as being the safest and most effective method available with far fewer complications. There are several advantages of microsuction over syringing:
- Using a microscope to view the ear means that the clinician can clearly see what they are doing throughout the treatment
- Using suction instead of water is much gentler on the ears and much less likely to cause any trauma
- As microsuction is a dry procedure there is a lower risk of outer ear infection (otitis externa)
- It can be performed on ears with perforated eardrums
- It can be performed on infected ears, in fact clearing any discharge and debris from an infected ear can help the prescribed treatment to do it’s job
- It is generally seen as the ‘gold standard’ method of ear wax removal and is the treatment that would be used by ENT (Ear, nose & throat) specialist doctors at the hospital
What can I do to stop the wax coming back after my ears have been cleared?
Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do to stop your ears from producing ear wax. However, you can help the ears with self-cleaning by keeping any wax that is produced soft. We recommend the use of olive oil drops or spray such as Earol, once or twice a week going forwards after your treatment. It is also important not to poke anything in your ears such as cotton buds as these tend to just push wax further in and carry a risk of trauma to the ear.
What Next?
If you need help with ear wax removal in Portsmouth, or you like to find out more about microsuction and how it may help you, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us here at the Southsea Ear Clinic. Our highly experienced and fully qualified audiologist Becky Guarracino will be on hand to answer all of your questions.
