cerumen impaction

[Easta]

Hello. I am new to this forum and hope you can give me your thoughts on my question. After about 5 months of GP visits with ear pain, feelings of fullness in the ear and some tinnitus, I have been referred to an ENT chappie. I saw him just before Christmas and he intends to remove impacted ear wax by microscope (I think) in the new year.

Has anyone had this procedure and what does it involve please? I have several times had lavage for wax problems but it has been unsuccessful, hence the referral.

Thank you.

[Nancy T]

Lost your appetite? :) You should have seen some of the giant chunks my GP used to flush out of my ear (before I started seeing ENTs). They'd work on me for an hour--drops, water syringe, call the doc back to look, she'd peer and poke, more and more syringing, call the doc back in... they'd show my wax chunks around the office, they were so big! I definitely try never to let it get to that point again!

Which reminds me... gotta go buy some more Debrox...

[Wear/a/Jimmy]

nancy, sometimes it is a two stage process.  Drops are administered to soften the wax on the initial visit, then it is removed on the second visit.

it all depends on the amount of wax, hardness of the wax....  blah blah blah....

lost my apetite

[Nancy T]

I don't know what your ENT intends to do and why he didn't do it right away, but my ENT removes wax with some instrument that pulls the wax out while he's looking in my ear through something, presumably a microscope.

It does not hurt, just feels a little funny with someone poking around in your ear. Not a big deal at all, although perhaps a bad impaction takes more work.

Every few weeks, I try to remember to use the earwax drops (which you can get over the counter) twice a day for a few days, per instructions on the box, to keep my earwax under control and save the doctor's office from having to clean it out. This works pretty well and avoids getting impacted wax.