After pulling about 4 cc’s of wax from each ear, my hearing tests came out between 15 and 30 decibels better on varying frequencies. I essentially went from mild hearing loss to superhuman hearing. If it gets this bad again, I may need surgery to fix my vascular tybe or some medical thingie in the ear like that.
10 decibels decrease is a tenth as loud, so improving by 20 db means I can hear sounds at a given frequency that are 1/100th as loud as before.
I picked up my whistle and played and I think I almost had a seizure from sensory overload. WOW! And since when did paper make so much NOISE?!?!?!?!
Due to an explosion where I formerly worked, I lost both my hearing and the use of both arms for a short time. Then somebody told me to take my fingers out of my ears.
BTW HappyTurkeyMan, a bulb syringe used once a week or so can really help prevent that kind of build up. A waterpik works wonders as well though I suppose it could risk eardrum damage if spritzed right on the membrane. I doubt you could get the doo-dad in that far anyway before it became painful.
A few drops of Debrox (from the pharmacy) or olive oil can be instilled in the ear, and flushed out a few minutes later with a bulb syringe. The water pic approach is now considered to be relatively risky by the medical community. I wouldn’t try to use one on myself if I valued my hearing.
Hi Tom! I’ve used it on myself, my kids, and on my ex-husband (well, while we were still married), and had really great results with improving hearing and sinus problems. It’s much easier, and safer, if you have someone doing it for you rather than trying to do it on oneself.
You can purchase the ear cones (aka candles) in health food stores. Give it a whirl and see for yourself!!
It helps with sinus problems also?? I guess that makes some sense. Not to venture to far OT on this OT thread, but I have sinus problems every night. Typically, I’m fine during the day, but I am congested EVERY single night. When the sun goes down, I get congested- guess I need to move to the land of the midnight sun, eh?
I remember my daughter having a problem with ear wax when she was young. The nurse used a device somewhat similar to a water pic, but it was not a water pic. Perhaps that is where people have gotten the idea of using a water pic. They device they used basically did the same thing the bulb did. It made it easier to keep up the pumping action though. Didn’t really appear to use more pressure than a bulb would have generated though.
I don’t know from measures, but some years back a physician flushed my ears with warm water, and out of the left ear popped a reddish pebble that looked as big as a Buick. I was surprised. The right ear was less productive. Nowadays I do the ear candling if I need it, which isn’t often. Besides, it’s literally a pain in the neck.
I had my ears flushed several times when I was younger. The thing I remember most is the the feeling that the water being flushed into my ear was going to come out of my eyeball. Sort of fun after getting over the shock ot the first time.
I hesitate to suggest this, but when I start having sinus symptoms, I go for the old bulb syringe (as mentioned here) and about a cup of warm salty water (sometimes buffered with a little baking soda) and “irrigate” my sinuses.
Actually, it was my family doctor who suggested it. It also degunks the inner ear and loosens up postnasal drip.
Basically I squirt the water into my nose and the aim is to get it into the sinuses to break up the gunk. Spit some out, snort some out, and carry around a tissue for the unexpected release when you tilt your head a certain way and a sinus tips over like a cup and empties.
Actually, with that ear candling thing you can make your own. From what I was shown, take some light linen fabric (I think I saw white cotton used once to) and tear into long strips about an inch to an inch and a half wide. Melt some wax (like the blocks of whitish wax you get for candlemaking) and dip the strips into the wax. (Be very careful and melt on low heat unless you like starting fires.) Take a large knitting needle (about twice as big around as a pencil) and carefully wrap the wax covered strips around it (like wrapping a mummy). Allow to cool and set up a bit. Pull the knitting needle out of the middle and poof, you should have a long hollow tube thing (AKA, ear candle).
Next make a ball of dough just a little smaller than a baseball from flour and water. Now find someone who cares to help you. Resting on your side with the ear you want to candle facing up, set one end of the candle in your ear covering the ear canal (the hole of the tube should line up with the hole in your ear) and use the dough to seal off around the candle/ear and help stablize the candle. Drape a towel to cover the surrounding hair and face. Then have that person (who cares) light the top of the candle on fire. They will need to tend the candle. Use metal tongs (like corn or salad tongs) and carefully remove excess burnt up ashy fabric from the top of the burning candle, placing said burnt up ashy fabric into a very nearby, good sized bowl of cool water. Burn candle until about four inches of the candle are left. Gently remove candle and put it out in the bowl of water.
Repeat, until you think your ear has been, um… sufficiantly candled. (3-4 times per ear average I would guess). Finally, enjoy having cleaner ears and grossing out your friends/relatives with any resulting ball of earwax.
E-e-e-e-e-w-w-w-w-w-w-w-w!!!
Really though, my step-mom showed me this and it seemed to make a difference.
I do the same thing as margaurite. Especially any time I start to get a cold. The salt water disolves mucus better than water alone, it is a natural decongestant without having to ingest a bunch of chemicals. It also cleans the back of the throat and neutralizes the acid burning feeling. I use either store bought saline solution or make my own by adding 1 teaspon per quart of water. Usually only a couple of teaspoons of the solution are needed to provide enough cleansing to produce an effect. The store bought stuff has some inert material added to keep the saline solution from going bad.
I learned this from my ex-wife who had severe allergies. She would do this every morning throughout allergy season as part of her morning ritual, like brushing one’s teeth. It was better than taking large doses of decongestants and anti-histamines.
The process cleans the cilia, which are the small hairs in the nasal passage that are used to control contaminant and humidity balance in the air. Having a runny nose is the body’s attempt to expel contaminants, weather it be allergins or germs. The saline solution just assists the body with what it is attempting to do. Some anti-histamines and decongestants try to just stop the body from reacting which only postpones the problem in some cases.
It’s like waking up to discover you’ve grown a foot!
