Probably temporary tinnitus, how to get rid of it?

[MT09]

Hello all, I'm Ganesh and previously, I'd posted on the forum that I was able to hear sounds as though it were coming from inside the head. Well, that's changed! I was able to find out that the sound's coming from my left ear. It's faint, no biggie. I can hear it all the time though. But I don't know why, I'm not irritated by it. I can hear it while someone's speaking, whilst I'm listening to songs, etc. I'm 20 years old, I've no hearing loss and I haven't been exposed to loud sounds any time recently. But, I've always had this huge ear wax accumulation in my left ear since I was a child. I'm guessing that could've caused my T. My question; is T caused by ear wax accumulation temporary? Will it go away if I get it removed by an ENT? My other question, an important one, what are the chances that my T will get worse if I get the ear wax removed? Help me out here guys, tell me all you know about this.

 

[Markku]

I think you should have the ear cleaned yes. Wax removal doesn't usually remove tinnitus completely, but it can reduce the perceived loudness of it. In your case, with a very faint tinnitus, I wouldn't be surprised if it became a total non-issue after wax removal in most situations.

Do you feel like your left ear is currently blocked by the wax?

While chronic tinnitus resulting from wax removal is very rare ( http://www.tinnitusjournal.com/detalhe_artigo.asp?id=462 ), I did get permanent tinnitus from ear syringing.

From the above article:
"Only 11 patients (0.46%) of 2,400 who visited this tinnitus clinic between 1986 and 2000 reported that their tinnitus began as a result of cerumen removal procedures performed by clinicians."

There's also some suggestions regarding the safe removal of wax in the article. It's a good read.

 

[MT09]

@Markku; Thanks for that link, it did have lots of good information. And my left ear always had a bit of very hard wax in it. I was thinking that's what caused my T? Does ear wax accumulation cause T? I've no idea how I could've got my T. And no, my ear doesn't feel like it's blocked because of the wax. I can hear just fine in both my ears in the same proportion. I read somewhere that ear wax does cause T and that it's temporary, so I was thinking of going to the ENT to get it removed. However, I also read in a few sites that people have had damage done to their ears while getting their ear wax removed. That scared me and so I'm still deciding.

 

[MT09]

How are they going to remove it anyway? I've been reading articles about it and everyone says the procedure was extremely painful! If this T is permanent.... fine! I think I'll live with it. But I don't wanna go to the ENT doc, get my wax removed and increase my T because of that.

 

[Markku]

I don't think wax can actually cause tinnitus.

I'd say the case often can be that there's an underlying very faint tinnitus that isn't usually heard, but if ear wax causes blockage in the ear, then that can cause the underlying tinnitus to become apparent and audible. Once the excess wax is removed, hearing returns to normal and tinnitus stops affecting that subgroup.

So in that sense it's temporary tinnitus that is only audible when there's excess wax.

There's several methods for removing ear wax. Some were mentioned in the aforementioned article I linked to.

You could first try some ear drops that are meant for this. Sometimes it's enough to remove the wax. If you have dry wax, these type of drops can soften the wax and then it's easier to remove when you go to the doctor's appointment.

In Finland this product is popular: http://www.itsehoitoapteekki.fi/Tuotteet1/muut-tuotteet/Remo-Wax/
It contains: Allantoin. 3 mg, Benzethon. chlorid. 1 mg, Butylhydroxytoluen. 1 mg, Phenethanol. 5 mg, Acid. sorb. 2 mg, Glucos. liquid., Lanolin. ol., Mink oil., Constit. et emulg., Aq. steril. ad 1 ml.


Movement of the jaw helps the ears' natural cleaning process. The American Academy of Otolaryngology discourages earwax removal unless excess earwax is causing health problems.[19] While a number of methods of earwax removal are effective, their benefits as compared to each other is not yet determined.[20] A number of softeners are effective; however, if this is not sufficient,[20] the most common method of cerumen removal is syringing with warm water.[21] A curette method is more likely to be used by otolaryngologists when the ear canal is partially occluded and the material is not adhering to the skin of the ear canal. Cotton swabs, on the other hand, push most of the earwax farther into the ear canal and remove only a small portion of the top layer of wax that happens to adhere to the fibres of the swab.[22]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earwax#Treatment