Ear Syringing Honiton Devon

Ear Syringing, or more commonly known as ear wax removal is a term which has kept in the public conscience even though it really doesn’t mean what it says. Well it does but if you watch the video you will see what we mean.  Using a huge old fashioned syringing to remove ear wax is pretty much a thing of the past.

If you need ear wax removed by a fully qualified audiologist, Colin Eaton the lead audiologist here at the Honiton hearing centre is your man. Watch his video bellow to see what ear syringing is all about.

What should you do about ear wax build up?

If wax is not causing any problems, it is best left alone. The ear is self-cleaning and the wax should clear naturally, so it is unnecessary to try to remove the wax yourself. If wax is noticed on the outer ear, a wipe with a clean flannel may be all that is needed. Sometimes, however, wax may build up, particularly if it is very dry or if the person has a narrow or hairy ear canal. Wax may also build up if it has been pushed down the canal by cotton buds, hearing aids, hair clips or other implements. Cotton buds can also irritate the ear canal, stripping it of its natural oils and causing it to feel itchy. When water gets into the ear during swimming or showering this may cause the wax to expand, giving a sensation of ‘blockage’ in the ear and increasing the perception of tinnitus.

If wax build up is causing deafness, problems with hearing aids, or is uncomfortable, it may need to be removed. Some people with tinnitus feel that their tinnitus is more troublesome when their ears are full of wax.

You can watch our Micro-suction ear wax removal video here

Honiton Ear Syringing

Video transcript:

Hello it’s Colin the Audiologist from Honiton Hearing Centre, and today I would like to talk to you about ear wax removal.

Quite often people will come in and say I would like my ears syringed and people don’t know where that terminology came from. Well I have in my hand here quite an old and antique ear syringe from years ago.

What they used to do is draw up the water into the syringe , nice and warm usually.

Then you put it into the ear and gently push the plunger down to syringe the ear.

That was what’s known as ear syringing.

Well thats not really used anymore, there was to much pressure built up by these things and they would split the ear drum for a past time unless you were very well trained with them.

We moved onto irrigation machines, and the first irrigation machine was the Pro Pulse which has a little jet of water which is actually jetted into the ear and it loosens the wax and the wax and the wax is collected into a little bowl you hold under your ear.

We have moved on from that now and we have a big ear irrigator we have here which has a big water bath on the top and that keeps the water warm at body temperature so when we use the pressure controlled trigger in your ear it cleans the ear out. It works on a high volume of water and a low pressure, so we can never put enough pressure in to damage an ear drum.

Now the third method which is currently used and is recommended as the gold standard is the Micros-Suction procedure and that Micro-Suction machine looks like this.

A beautifully clear view of whats going on in the ear. We then proceeded to use the Micro-Suction tube to go inside the speculum and then gradually (bracing against the face) we go down into the ear and remove all of the wax inside the ear canal until its all gone. As we are doing this, all the bits are going up the tube. We just take it out and that should be fine. How are you feeling?  Very fine.

As you can see it’s very quiet running, it has a magnetic on and off switch and the Micro-Suction switch is to gently go in and if you like to gently hoover out the ear.

It damages less, it introduces less water into the ear, you are not introducing a foreign material into the ear in the form of water so that any infection doesn’t build up afterwards. It also leaves a coating of ear wax around the ear canal when you have taken the core out with the Microsuction machine, so that the PH and the natural balance and the fauna and flora in the ear stay the same, so your ear hasn’t been disturbed in any way really, we have just taken a core of wax out of the middle. So Micro-Suction is the gold standard, we use irrigation occasionally if we need to loosen some earwax from a drum. And these? Well these are a thing of the past. But we still get people coming in and asking for ear syringing and I’m tempted one day to get it out to frighten people. Have a good one!