I get a lot of wax build up, and just went a month ago to get irrigated, as it were.
I was told to get drops that will help with the wax. I used them one day.
It still felt wet hours later, and I still had the poppi ng sound.
Then my left ear got sore. I went to my dr. and she gave me an antibiotic! Should I not use drops for wax? That must have caused it.
After you use the drops, you rinse them out.
The ear wax removal systems I have used (OTC) worked by putting several drops in, letting it sit there for 10 minutes and then using a bulb syringe (big rubber thing) to squirt slightly warm water in my ear to flush things out.
I do not think the drops are meant to just sit in the ear without being flushed out in short order. The drops seem a bit oily so seem to linger if not flushed out.
As with all such things, follow the directions on the box (or from your doctor).
After my ears became plugged with wax, my doc said that as we age (I’m 59) we all tend to make either too much or too little wax. I make too much. It causes a ringing after 5 or so days which gets progressively louder. So I bought an ear syringe, and every 3 or 4 days, I squirt a water + peroxide mix in there. It prevents any buildup.
Yeah, I should’ve flushed them out. The bottle says you May want to do so if needed.
So now I took the first 2 of the Z pac and feel bloated and gassy.
Another option is an ear wax auger. Don’t use q-tips, because they tend to push ear wax into the canal. There now are soft plastic augers that you turn in the ear and it pulls ear wax out.
I can’t remember the trade name for them?
I have suffered from this on several occasions, and the doctors say that olive oil is no worse than proprietary drops.
If after a few days it has not spontaneously cleared than you probably need to have the ear syringed; if you do this once you are more likely to need it again. The public health service here is no longer willing to do this for free.
Pediatrician here and concur with the advice for using plain cooking oil (olive oil the classic but no reason canola or others wouldn’t work too) several times a week if one is prone. Two drops each ear, gently dissolves into the hard wax and lubricates so that it comes out on its own. I’ve had decades of experience curetting cerumen out of the way so I can see an eardrum and regrettably still sometimes scratch the canal in the process, and an ear flush device needs more pressure to be effective than you may think. I would not recommend either as things to try at home.
As to the OP? No, the commercial available drops (usually peroxide based, such as Debrox) would not have caused an infection, but they can cause problems if you already have an issue, like a canal infection (otitis externa) or a perforated ear drum. Flushing would have only made problems like those worse.
My ENT tells me to use hydrogen peroxide (the 30% kind). I use once a day. (And I go 3 times a year to have my ears cleaned out).
The last time I used drops and one of those syringe things to flush my ear, I made it worse and ended up pushing the wax down further.
I think the fact the drops stayed in too long may have caused an infection.
Its nice to know I’m not the only one who has to go to a dr. to get her ears cleaned out.
I’m certainly not going to argue with a physician but, although this may generally be true, anecdotally I’ve had success for decades with occasional use of a rubber-bulb syringe for flushing out my ears. By “occasional” I mean maybe once a year or so, or less.
I’ve always just used warm water and have not resorted to any sort of oil or peroxide, although that might be helpful. The rubber-bulb device makes it hard to generate very much pressure (unlike a plunger-type device that doctors use) so I imagine it’s probably pretty safe with the downside that it may take a number of attempts to clear out a blockage.
It has always worked, except once. Once – only once in my entire experience with this – I just couldn’t clear a blockage despite maybe 20 attempts. It was very unnerving being almost deaf in one ear, so I got myself down to a walk-in clinic. The doctor there cleared it out very quickly using the higher pressure from one of those plunger things (kind of like a big version of a syringe used for injections). No ear drops were involved there, either.
I’ve had to use my rubber-bulb thing once or twice since then and it continues to work.
The drops/syringe work fine for me most of the time. The first time I did it was years ago and the giant gob of nasty-looking gunk that came out was disgusting, but a relief to be rid of.
A doctor just told us Debrox drops would not have caused an infection-he is a pediatrician, so he would know.
You likely had an ear infection already brewing, the detox had nothing to do with it. Your doctor gave you antibiotics because they saw signs of an infection behind your eardrum, likely redness and/or slight bulging.
Make sure to take all your antibiotics, even if your ear seems better. Taking the whole course as prescribed matters!
Yes. She said it was red and there was fluid. I always finish my antibiotics.
Good girl! Your body thanks you.
I grew up taking them every time I got sick. In the past year I’ve taken them 5 times. (had a few uti’s).
It’s also possible the reason you wanted the drops was because you already had a low grade infection. The only times my ears have actually gotten clogged with wax were when i had an infection.
They gave me antibiotics and hydrogen peroxide (which is similar to debrox.) It took a couple of days for the hydrogen peroxide to chew through the wax plug, but when it did, what sweet sweet relief.
The human body has so many things that go wrong with it!