Can You Remove Impacted Ear Wax At Home?

Can You Remove Impacted Ear Wax At Home?

In order to fully answer this question, we must first find out what ear wax is and how it becomes impacted, and then find out about impacted ear wax removal home remedies and the best wax to remove impacted ear wax.

What Is Ear Wax And Where Does It Come From?

Ear wax is actually made by your own ear. It is a mixture of a heavy, acidic oil called cerumen, which is produced in the ceruminous glands that line the outer two thirds of the ear canal, shed skin cells and sweat. Ear wax serves to protect the delicate, thin surface of the ear canal by keeping it moisturised, as well as keeping the ear clean by catching dust, pollen, bacteria and small insects and stopping them from growing (or laying eggs) in your ear. Normally a combination of the jaw squeezing the ear canal from the outside, and the natural skin migration process carries wax out of the ear, bringing with it the aforementioned dust, pollen, bacteria and small insects.

How Does Ear Wax Become Impacted?

They say "the smallest thing you should put in your ear is your elbow", and they're not wrong! Most of the time, ear wax will work its way out of your ear on its own. However, some people have to put things in their ears. For example, they might live by a noisy street or have noisy neighbours, so must wear ear plugs to sleep at night; they might work in a very noisy environment and have to wear ear plugs to protect their hearing from industrial noise; or they might have a hearing loss and need to wear hearing aids to be able to hear clearly. Each time you put something in your ear beyond the entrance of the canal, it pushes ear wax back in that otherwise would have made its way out. If you keep doing this, the wax piles up as it's alternately pushed outwards from the inside, and then back inwards from the outside. Over time, the wax gets compressed and dries out, and can get stuck to the wall of the ear canal like hardened glue. This situation is made even worse when people insert cotton buds into their ears, as the shape of the cotton bud enables wax to be pushed into parts of the ear drum where it doesn't belong. Although some wax will inevitably rub off on the cotton bud tip, most of it gets pushed further into the ear canal, often getting stuck beyond the narrow point of the ear canal or pushed against the ear drum. The more this is done, the more compressed and dried out the wax becomes, eventually getting stuck deep inside the ear canal. This is impacted ear wax.

Home Remedies For Impacted Ear Wax

Impacted ear wax is incredibly frustrating. It can be uncomfortable, even painful, and often causes a temporary loss of hearing. It's understandable that people want to remove impacted ear wax at home using a home remedy, so they can get rid of their impacted ear wax in the convenience and comfort of their own home.

Most home remedies for impacted ear wax involve first softening the wax using drops, and then either flushing or scooping the ear wax out of the ear. Bear in mind that the delicate skin inside the ear canal is one millimetre at its thickest and one tenth of that at the ear drum, so whatever chemicals are used, they must be strong enough to soften or dissolve ear wax, but gentle enough not to irritate or burn through the skin of the ear canal; and whatever method is used to flush or scoop the ear wax out must not use so much force that it damages the ear canal or eardrum.

After the impacted earwax has been softened, a bulb syringe, or alternatively a syringe with a special tip can be used to squirt water into the ear in an effort to dislodge the ear wax. However, when you think about it, this poses an obvious problem - the water being squirted into your ear canal can just as easily push the wax even further into your ear, making things ten times worse!

The alternative is to scoop out the ear wax, and you can find all kinds of arcane instruments online that promise to hook, scoop or draw out your ear wax. You can even find soft silicone corkscrew-like devices advertised on social media (no, they don't work - and yes, they ARE too good to be true). The problem with any of these instruments is that if you can't see inside your own ear, and if you don't have professional training, you can do some serious damage to your own ear. You might push the wax even further into your ear, or worse yet - damage your eardrum.

There is yet another alternative, which we don't recommend either, and that is one of the endoscopic earwax removal cameras you can get online. Endoscopic earwax removal takes a highly-trained Audiologist hours of supervised teaching to learn, and then months of practice to become good at it. Most Audiologists would rather use an ENT microscope rather than an endoscope when removing earwax as the 3D view provided by an ENT microscope affords a greater degree of safety compared to the 2D view given by an endoscope. Doctor Cliff, one of our esteemed colleagues, gives a great explanation in this youtube video:

If none of the previously mentioned methods are recommended, what then is the best way to remove impacted ear wax?

Best Way To Remove Impacted Ear Wax

It is certainly a good idea to soften impacted ear wax at home before its removal, and research confirms this reduces the chances of dizziness or discomfort during an earwax removal procedure. Before a procedure, we recommend the following regime: 2 days of glycerine ear drops - 3 drops in each ear twice a day, followed by 3 days of Earoll® spray, 3 squirts in each ear 3 times a day., and then Waxsoll® at night for two nights prior to ear wax removal.

Given that it takes an Audiologist, who has studied the anatomy and physiology of the human ear in depth and whose work is solely related to ears, months of practice to become proficient at ear wax removal, we recommend that you seek out a professional Audiology service to complete the impacted ear wax removal procedure for you. Due to the Covid-19 crisis, we don't currently recommend impacted ear wax removal at home. However, we have put in place stringent procedures to ensure safety in our clinics and believe that our clinics are the safest place you can be right now.

Professional Ear Wax Removal Near You

With over 30 clinics in London, The Home Counties, East Anglia and The Midlands, have come to the right place. We have put in place stringent measures to ensure your safety, including our staff wearing full PPE, all patients are triaged before booking, and wear Type iiR fluid-resistant surgical masks while on our premises, patients' temperatures are taken before entering, and surfaces are sanitised between procedures.

To book ear wax removal at a clinic near you, you can call us on 0800 1 337 987 or save £10 and book online by going to our booking page here, or by clicking the button below.