Should I Risk Ear Flushing / Syringing Again? It Originally Caused My Hyperacusis

Hi, all.

So, I developed moderate-to-severe hyperacusis back in the beginning of May last year due to an ear-flushing gone wrong. The GP who flushed out my ears (due to earwax impaction) was so rough that she damaged my inner ear hairs, causing an intense hearing sensitivity.

(My full story: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...ake-my-ears-more-sensitive.34783/#post-437018)

It's now coming up to almost a year since that happened, and I've definitely come a long way in terms of hearing sensitivity. I'm close to being able to tolerate the same amount of sound as I could before the incident, but of course, my earwax hate me and is deciding to make impaction a seemingly annual thing and I can feel the wax building up inside my ears again...

This means I have to either risk the same accident happening through an ear-flushing and basically go right back to square one, or just deal with not being able to hear well due to wax blocking up my ears.

I should mention that I'd had my earwax flushed out once before the incident and came out absolutely fine, but that was done by my regular, more experienced GP, who I couldn't see the day of the incident and had to end up going with a younger, less experienced one, resulting in the accident.

I live in Australia, so there's literally no place around me that offers manual removal (with metal tools) at an affordable rate, if at all.

I think I know, in the back of my mind, that I'm going to have to get it flushed out again and that it's inevitable at this point, but I'd still like to hear your thoughts. If I do end up doing that, I'll most definitely go with my regular GP, so there's less risk, but still...

Should I go for it?

Thanks for your help in advance.

- S

 

Are you absolutely sure there isn’t a single place that will do a manual removal?

This is tricky situation but I wouldn’t risk it if it gave you issues in the first place.

 

Why all the hassle? Buy something like this, fill it up with warmish water (not hot and not cold), squeeze the water into your ear while having your head above the sink: repeat a few times, and done. No risk involved and ears clean again. Since I got one of these, I haven't had to go to the specialist for ear cleaning even once.

 

I'm not sure how effective this is for real earwax compaction and I would worry about being too forceful if I did it myself (beyong just pumping water in). Also, the chemical stuff that comes with it that softens the earwax often just makes it worse.

To the OP: it doesn't sound worth the risk. I would rather have earwax compaction than risk more hearing damage. Can you not see a regular ENT who will use metal tools?

 

No worries there, squeezing the bulb cannot produce enough force to harm the eardrum.

What chemical stuff do you mean?