Earwax Removal: Mineral Oil Not Coming Out

[hans799]

I'm purchasing custom silicon earplugs and ear impressions were taken this morning. During the process the technician pushed a little sponge into the ear to prevent the silicone from reaching the eardrum. The impression process went fine but the sponge compacted a lot of earwax together in my left ear.

After searching for recommendations for earwax removal, I decided on mineral oil. I dropped 8 drops into my left ear about a hour ago.

All good so far but now the stuff is not coming back out! Some of it did leak back, but my ear is still full with the oil and wax.

Where do I go from here? The internet tells me to irrigate/syringe the ear, which I'm absolutely not going to do. Will the stuff come out on its own or should I schedule an ENT appointment?

 

[chaLLas]

I had a similar problem last week, water got in my ear while taking a shower. I had compacted ear wax because of ear plug usage. The wax got wet and I had a constantly wet feeling in the ear. The wax sucked it all up and was in too deep for me to remove it by myself. So I went to the ENT and he removed the wax manually because it wasn't that much that had built up. Maybe yours can be removed manually too ... if not (and irrigation/syringing needs to be done), you should probably use the oil for some more days. I read on here that you should use the oil multiple days before the procedure to make it saver.

 

[Yoshi]

It depends on your wax type, my earwax type is of the extremely soft variety, which means oil does absolutely nothing for me when I apply it, and it also means large pieces can't be removed manually with forceps. If your earwax type is the same then you'll need to have it irrigated (most likely solution) or suctioned. If you decide to have to irrigated then I highly suggest you find an audiologist/GP that uses an irrigator like this: https://www.bionix.com/medicaltech/product/otoclear-spraywash-bottle/ and not like this https://www.amazon.com/Physician-Supplies-Ear-Syringe-Metal/dp/B0008G1ZRS. The former is much more gentler than the latter, which is now falling out of fashion for being too traumatic to the eardrum and unsanitary.