Ear wax build-up

You may be experiencing:

• Difficulty hearing
• Earache
• Itchiness
• Dizziness
• An ear infection
• Sounds coming from inside the ear (tinnitus)

Once the build-up is removed however, your symptoms should improve.

You can’t stop ear wax from being produced. It serves an important purpose and is there to protect your ears from germs and dirt.

You can help prevent build-up by continuing to use ear drops every few days to soften the wax. This should help prevent your ears becoming blocked as it is helping the wax fall out on its own.

Never use objects such as cotton buds, or your fingers, to remove your ear wax build-up. This will push the wax further into your ear and make it worse. It can also damage the mechanisms for wax to fall out naturally and it can lead to infections. There is also no evidence to suggest that ear vacuums or ear candles get rid of ear wax.

If your earwax is not falling out on its own, and it is blocking your ear, you can use household olive oil to soften the wax and help it to come out of the ear.

Olive oil sprays are available over the counter from most pharmacies and may be a little less messy to use. The recommended dose is 2 sprays per affected ear twice a day for 4 weeks.

Ear drops

First warm the oil to body temperature by holding the bottle for a few minutes before using it.

Lie on your side with the affected ear facing up and drop in 2-3 drops of oil. Gently pull and push your outer ear to work the drops in. Stay lying down for at least 10 minutes afterwards to allow the drops to soak into the ear wax.

You should continue to do this two to three times a day for two to three weeks and you should notice some improvement. You may notice lumps of earwax making their way out of your ear bit by bit. You may feel your ear feels more blocked in the first few days of treatment as the wax softener has expanded the ear wax before it can break it down; this is to be expected.

Some people are troubled by repeated build-up of earwax. In order to prevent earwax building up and forming a plug, it may be helpful to use olive oil drops regularly for example every few days.

If the oil does not help, then you can ask a pharmacist about other treatments. They may recommend chemical drops, which can help dissolve the ear wax, and it should fall out of the ear on its own after about a week.

Do not use drops if you have a hole in your eardrum (also known as a perforated eardrum).

Self-irrigation

You could also try flushing the wax from your ear using an ear bulb syringe which you can buy inexpensively from your pharmacy. An ear bulb syringe is a small bulb shaped rubber object which can be filled with warm water and then used to squirt the water gently into the ear to remove the ear wax. This will be more effective once you have softened the wax with eardrops twice a day for at least 7 days.

You should not use a bulb syringe in the following circumstances:

• Pain in the ear

• A history of eardrum perforation in the affected ear

• A recent history of an ear infection in the affected ear

• Symptoms of infection in the ear – usually pain or smelly discharge

• If you only have one hearing ear which is the affected ear

• Previous ear surgery on the affected ear

Consider contacting your practice if:

• Your ear hasn’t cleared after 4 weeks, and self-irrigation has been unsuccessful or is unsuitable for you
• Your ear is badly blocked, and you can’t hear anything
• Your ear is painful
• Your ear is discharging smelly or blood-stained liquid

Some GP practices can remove build up by:

• Flushing the wax out with water (ear irrigation, also known as syringing)
• Sucking the wax out (microsuction)

These treatments are usually painless. You might have to pay to have them done privately.

Most patients will be required to try to manage their ear wax build-up at home, get advice from a pharmacist or see a nurse at their practice before they will be referred on elsewhere for further treatment. Unless there is a reason not to do so, then in Devon referral for further treatment is not available until ear irrigation has been tried at least twice.