Hi, my name is Dr JC Hodge. I’m an ENT specialist from South Australia and a founding member of Tinnitus Treatment. I’m here to talk to you about earwax and tinnitus. Earwax can aggravate your tinnitus if it completely blocks the ear canal. So, if there’s a little pathway of air between in the ear canal where the wax is, you’ll be fine but the moment it blocks it off you’ll get a conductive hearing loss like putting your fingers in your ears and then you’ll hear your internal sound loud. So, it’s important to get on top of your tinnitus.
Now, there’s another way of doing this. I’m talking about what you put in the air first. The only drops you put in the air you’re gonna pull the ear canal so it sticks out so it opens it up give it a good shake. Press down in front of the ear especially those viscous drops and then keep your head on the side. I normally use extra virgin olive oil because the oil will soften the wax and then the wax when it’s dry and crusty sort of sticks the ear canal. Now, the skin of the ear grows out and it’s a bit like the skin on the is unique in the body so if you soften the wax that, you know, the nature should do the rest of it for you. Extra virgin because otherwise you can smell like greek salad which is not everyone’s cup of tea.
Now, other drops, propriety drops, Waxsol, that contains docusate and that’s the same drug your granddad uses to soften his stools. Don’t steal his hidden stash. He’s not going to be very happy with you. You can buy a little. You can buy this separately and that breaks down the wax. Now, the problem with the game with all these things is that they break down wax and if there’s enough in there, it will fill the canal off to make it worse because it blocks it then. You can use products such as ear clean spray. That’s a little bit witch-crafty contains various oils and squalene. You’ll smell good because it’s got some spearmint in there but it probably has the same effect as just extra virgin olive oil from the kitchen cupboard. You can use ear clear drops, a little bit of money spent on branding there, and that’s a peroxide. Now, with all the peroxide types, sodium bicarbonate hydrogen peroxide carbamide, which this one is that they can really irritate the ear canal. So you’ve got an underlying dermatitis, which is not unusual, and a cause of these problems. Then, you’re gonna make that a bit worse. So next step if that’s not getting over the line and my rule is if you can’t put it on a baby’s bottom, don’t stick it in your ear.
So extra virgin olive oil or baby oil is an alternative. If that doesn’t help clean out the ears and you can do that a few times a week then GP can flush it out. Now with drops, too warm too hot, you can get very dizzy when you put them in the ear. So room temperature, when the deep GP flush, that’s often the problem, the water can make you can make you a bit dizzy. It’s an unpleasant process sometimes. So, some people love it. Most people are not big fans and you can’t have it if it’s infected. You’ve got bad dermatitis or you’ve got an underlying perforation or are prone to perforations because you’re going to make it worse and potentially cause some problems.
So, the next step is to go to your friendly ENT service and and they can clean out normally the suction device with various carrets, direct vision and really well tolerated but you and it means you’ve got a trip to see the ENT specialist and the cost that involves.
My name is DR JC Hodge. Again, founding member of Tinnitus Treatment. If you like this video, share it. Otherwise, you can go to the website on www.tinnitustreatment.com.au and to access the treatment that I provide, that can can be accessed into the Tinnitus Treatment via the android or apple. Thanks!
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