Singapore Expats

May I know how to clear ear wax? I am using the Tibeten candle at the moment but a bit troublesome. Is there any other ways? The ear pin is useless to me. Anybody has clear the ear wax effectively, kindly recommend me the methods.

I go to my family doctor to remove ear wax. He has this device that sucks out the wax, it's quick & effective!

Just did it recently, a lot of wax was cleared.

cosmogal wrote:May I know how to clear ear wax? I am using the Tibeten candle at the moment but a bit troublesome.

That would be because ear candles don't actually do anything at all (except occasionally rupture your eardrums).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ear_candling

ive heard that if you go for ear candling, you may end up accidentally burning your inner ear and going deaf =\ lol! ive recently gotten a slight ear infection from using a ear pin.. my doctor told me that ear wax doesnt need to be cleared actually.. =S

I had a pretty bad issue with ear wax in early 2008 and had great success with a visit to Dr. Adrian.

http://www.entsnoring.com/ourclinic.htm

He's at Mt. Elizabeth and was able to see me right away. Highly recommended.

talk more and/or eat more. jaw movements help remove ear wax from your canals.

there's no safe method of removing ear wax other than visiting your doctor. your body can clear it properly if you let it...

stop poking at them.

maybe it's an asian thing... but I swear by using a ear-pick to clean out the ears weekly.

I am not a believer that ear-wax can be removed naturally by the body, not after I had to suffer a numbing pain to the whole left-side of my face surrounding my ear when I was a child of 8 or 9 years of age. The pain would not go away for a whole week and I finally when to the doctor when I could not even sleep. A visit to the doctor determined that my ear was over-clogged with ear-wax and to make it worse, seem to have harden due to exposure the the outside air, hence causing the pain that just would not go away. The doctor prescribe some wax medication to soften the harden ear wax... after which my mom had to help me clean my ears out with a ear-pick.

Since then, I have learned to clean out my own ears regularly with the indispensable ear-pick and even do it for my wifey and toddler.

redtush wrote:maybe it's an asian thing... but I swear by using a ear-pick to clean out the ears weekly.

The ears require wax as a protection, remove it and the body will produce more to replace the missing protection. If you have been doing it for years then your body has developed a regime where it knows to replace it once a week and if you suddenly stop, then there may be a problem with over production.

Why not gradually taper off the ear wax picking, and you will probably find that your body will revert back to the natural state where it can keep its ears clean.

I would have thought there is more of an infection issue if you keep sticking bits of wood/metal in places where its not really designed to go.

QRM wrote:

redtush wrote:maybe it's an asian thing... but I swear by using a ear-pick to clean out the ears weekly.

The ears require wax as a protection, remove it and the body will produce more to replace the missing protection. If you have been doing it for years then your body has developed a regime where it knows to replace it once a week and if you suddenly stop, then there may be a problem with over production.

Why not gradually taper off the ear wax picking, and you will probably find that your body will revert back to the natural state where it can keep its ears clean.

I would have thought there is more of an infection issue if you keep sticking bits of wood/metal in places where its not really designed to go.

Haha, your avartar is "Right On the Topic... "

Actually, the best way to remove excess wax buildup is by using olive oil drops for a couple of nights then go to the doctor and let the irrigate it with a large bore water syringe which will remove the blockage without removing the protective layer of wax.

irrigation is recommended only for people with no ear problems (eg, ruptured drums).

for most people, olive oil works fine by itself without further intervention.

but please make sure the olive oil is not... um, contaminated. and not too much, please.

and not before a date either.

the ear needs its wax. don't go taking it all out. tsk tsk tsk...

JimH5 wrote:I had a pretty bad issue with ear wax in early 2008 and had great success with a visit to Dr. Adrian.

http://www.entsnoring.com/ourclinic.htm

He's at Mt. Elizabeth and was able to see me right away. Highly recommended.

I have used your recommendation for Dr. Adrian. He has a a nice clinic with the newest technology available. I already had my ear wax cleaned few times in Europe with a warm water solution. It was my first one in Singapore and it was done under the microscope using vacuum where you could see what he is doing on tv.

It was certainly the most professional ear wax treatment (and most expensive) I ever had however that comes at a price of $428 including GST... My insurance covered this but it is worth to mention for someone whose insurance won't cover or don't have one.

$428 for an ear wax removal? I'd want the DVD and wax for that as well as a slab of gold, that is horrendous!

I'll just go to my family GP and get them to do it with a syringe and pay $25 I think

I was thinking the same thing, except, I used the Polyclinic and it only cost me $12 for the irrigation plus $1 for the little bottle of olive oil for future use.

To the polyclinic it is then! Cheers SMS!