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I just had my ears cleaned and had a clump of ear wax around the size of a kidney bean come out. Quite frankly I was horrified but had had suspicions about hear

I just had my ears cleaned and had a clump of ear wax around the size of a kidney bean come out. Quite frankly I was horrified but had had suspicions about hearing issues in the prior weeks. The nurse essentially has an angled syringe that they use to repeatedly spray warm water at the wax until it’s dislodged. It’s not a nice sensation but tolerable. After the procedure was done, the nurse had asked if I regularly had in ear headphones or earplugs - which was the case. So be aware of this issue.

PragmaticPulp 6y ago
To make matters more complicated, there are reports of chronic tinnitus being reported after earwax (aka cerumen) removal: https://www.tinnitusjournal.com/articles/chronic-tinnitus-resulting-from-cerumen-removal-procedures.pdf https://www.tinnitusjournal.com/articles/chronic-tinnitus-re... It's a complicated topic, though, because many people first notice their tinnitus because they start paying attention to their ears for some reason, such as an earwax removal procedure, or using noise-cancelling headphones which lower the noise floor so much as to make tinnitus obvious over the reduced noise floor.
- underwater 6y ago
  No joke, I read this comment and realised my ears are ringing.
  - PragmaticPulp 6y ago
    It's a very real phenomenon. Now imagine if you had inserted air-cancelling earbuds that reduced background noise to levels well below ambient. The ringing would feel even louder. Tinnitus sufferers hate isolation tanks for this reason. Background noise masks tinnitus quite well, so eliminating it makes tinnitus subjectively worse.
    - RHSeeger 6y ago
      And then go into one of those noise cancelling rooms, and the only sounds you can hear are your blood pumping through your body and the tinnitus ringing.
tptacek 6y ago
The first time this happened to me it was so profound it made me question the nature of my reality. I left the doctors office slightly nauseous and with bionic super-hearing.
- michaelcampbell 6y ago
  This happened to me once as a kid; it was surreal. Now, I have tinnitus 24/7. (Which is completely unrelated.)
idlewords 6y ago
You can do this at home with very warm water and a soft bulb, squeezing it as hard as you can, and it is terrifying. It feels uncomfortable and sounds very loud. Do it for as long as you can stand, and then do it more. Do it for so long that you feel like an idiot and get dizzy. About 10-15 squirts past the moment when you think there can't possibly be any point to what you're doing, an eldritch horror will come out of your ear into the sink, and you'll hear sounds you haven't heard in years. Then do the other ear.
- deanclatworthy 6y ago
  Yep. They sell a product here called Remo-wax where you place drops in the ear for about an hour and then you spray the ear with a rubber ball/syringe type thing. I had no results with this however. The “ball” was so big i think it needed someone to target the blockage directly. Your mileage may vary.
  - idlewords 6y ago
    I tried a lot of the products that involve putting drops in your ear, and maybe they work for delicate dainty people. The only thing that works for me is dozens of painful, loud blasts of hot water from a bulb until the abomination lurking inside has had enough and comes out.

PragmaticPulp 6y ago

To make matters more complicated, there are reports of chronic tinnitus being reported after earwax (aka cerumen) removal: https://www.tinnitusjournal.com/articles/chronic-tinnitus-resulting-from-cerumen-removal-procedures.pdf https://www.tinnitusjournal.com/articles/chronic-tinnitus-re... It's a complicated topic, though, because many people first notice their tinnitus because they start paying attention to their ears for some reason, such as an earwax removal procedure, or using noise-cancelling headphones which lower the noise floor so much as to make tinnitus obvious over the reduced noise floor.

underwater 6y ago
No joke, I read this comment and realised my ears are ringing.
- PragmaticPulp 6y ago
  It's a very real phenomenon. Now imagine if you had inserted air-cancelling earbuds that reduced background noise to levels well below ambient. The ringing would feel even louder. Tinnitus sufferers hate isolation tanks for this reason. Background noise masks tinnitus quite well, so eliminating it makes tinnitus subjectively worse.
  - RHSeeger 6y ago
    And then go into one of those noise cancelling rooms, and the only sounds you can hear are your blood pumping through your body and the tinnitus ringing.

tptacek 6y ago

The first time this happened to me it was so profound it made me question the nature of my reality. I left the doctors office slightly nauseous and with bionic super-hearing.

michaelcampbell 6y ago
This happened to me once as a kid; it was surreal. Now, I have tinnitus 24/7. (Which is completely unrelated.)

idlewords 6y ago

You can do this at home with very warm water and a soft bulb, squeezing it as hard as you can, and it is terrifying. It feels uncomfortable and sounds very loud. Do it for as long as you can stand, and then do it more. Do it for so long that you feel like an idiot and get dizzy. About 10-15 squirts past the moment when you think there can't possibly be any point to what you're doing, an eldritch horror will come out of your ear into the sink, and you'll hear sounds you haven't heard in years. Then do the other ear.

deanclatworthy 6y ago
Yep. They sell a product here called Remo-wax where you place drops in the ear for about an hour and then you spray the ear with a rubber ball/syringe type thing. I had no results with this however. The “ball” was so big i think it needed someone to target the blockage directly. Your mileage may vary.
- idlewords 6y ago
  I tried a lot of the products that involve putting drops in your ear, and maybe they work for delicate dainty people. The only thing that works for me is dozens of painful, loud blasts of hot water from a bulb until the abomination lurking inside has had enough and comes out.