I think I know what the culprit is and it's the wax I was trying to get out in the first place. It's turned into like a muck and gummed my ear right up. It seems to be worse at night when I sleep but during the day when my head is elevated it feels better. I'm going to make a doc appt to see about getting my ears flushed out with the syringe they have. Worked for me in the past.
The best success I've had getting earwax out is by getting any kind of cheap plastic syringe (20ml+) and a plastic bowl, filling the bowl up with warm water from the shower, leaning into the shower or over a bathtub and just blasting shots of warm water into my ear for about 15 minutes.
For the first few minutes it'll seem like nothing's happening, but the warm water will be softening the wax and then suddenly you'll get huge clumps coming out and you'll be like, how the hell did all of that fit in my ear? And then you just keep going, probably longer than you expect, until you can feel the water hitting your eardrum unobstructed - if your ears are as bad as mine get you'll easily be able to feel the difference. Any other softening methods beforehand will help, but I don't bother and it probably only adds a few minutes to the whole process. I usually feel dizzy for a few minutes afterwards though, so if you get that don't worry!
I'm thinking about doing that. Or going to the urgent care.
The above works! I’ve had the same thing happen many times (not sure what’s wrong with my ears) and this is the way. Oils, hydrogen peroxide and all the other drops do basically nothing ime. I went to a clinic the first time this happened and their syringe thing worked great, but if you’re in the USA where this would cost you money, just get the home device.
I've also had good experiences in the past when I had a serious blockage with using one of those wide-mouthed syringes. In addition to water what I did was take some food grade baby/mineral oil (can also buy at many pharmacies), put it in the syringe and heated it up with hot water to uncomfortable but not painful and then blasted it in and let it sit for some minutes with ear turned down then flushed with water, the oil acting to soften the wax and kind of lubricate it out so when I later flushed with water it came out more easily.
If you don't want to bother going to a doctor, there's ear wax oil you can buy at the drug store.
It's oil plus other stuff to dissolve the wax. You drip it in your ear while laying on your side, let it soak, then lay on your other side and drain it onto a towel.
Could look into the oil because the hydrogen peroxide and rubbing alcohol mixed with vinegar too did nothing
When I tried hydrogen peroxide it felt like it just made the ear wax seep deeper into my ear, I didn't really like it.
I've heard of people using just cooking oil (peanut or olive), but idk if I trust that to not give me an ear infection.
Cooking-type oil is in the drug store stuff, but so is other stuff, and it's in an eyedropper type thing and sold as sterile so it's pretty easy to use.
Edit: just checked what's in my drops I use, it's 6.5% carbamine peroxide as the medical ingredient, and alcohol plus other stuff as the non-medical. It feels and smells like oil but there's none in it
You can try microwaving a hand towel as hot as you find comfortable and then laying with your ear on it for a bit to see if that helps dislodge it.
Would boiling some water and ringing out the towel work, my microwave is broken
Probably. Could also put the towel in a ziplock bag. Just trying to get some heat up into the ear. No hotter than comfortable tho! Be safe!
ty I can try that, I'm also going to try out my hair drier again. Wondering if my psoriasis on my scalp and ears isn't contributing to the wax too. Like I said having my head elevated has helped a lot.
I've had backed up wax in my ears. The answer was a combination this ear wax softener kit and warm water. Warm tap water is fine. After letting the stuff sit in my ear for a few minutes, I would use the warm water and syringe to flush my ear until the wax wad comes out. It took a couple of tries before I was successful.
Was looking at this kit last night, reminds me of the syringe the doctor uses to clean your ears out.
It’s probably just hydrogen peroxide you put in to soften the wax before squeezing it out with water. But ye the squeezy bottle / syringe is the trick.
Like another commenter said they sell wax removal stuff at most pharmacies. Never used them myself but my mom said they work.
