microsuction ear wax removal treatments

According to NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) approximately 2.3 million people in the UK suffer from ear wax build-up which would require intervention (NICE, 2018). The prevalence of problematic wax is between 19-65% for those aged 65 or over. 

However, many of us can suffer from wax build-up, particularly when our hearing and sometimes balance becomes affected is when we might seek to see an Audiologist for treatment.  Pain, imbalance, hearing loss or earache could be the result of impacted or 'hard' wax' and having this seen to sooner could prevent any on-going unpleasant symptoms. Your Be Hearing Audiologist might advise you to soften the wax prior to having treatment to allow for easier and more comfortable wax removal.

Wax is also known as 'cerumen' as it is produced by your cerumen and sebaceous glands in your ear canal. It is a yellow/brown sticky substance whose purpose is to protect your ear drum from other foreign bodies. As our ear canals skin reforms periodically, any wax or debris such as dead skin or 'keratin' migrate outwards. Therefore our ears are self-cleaning but may need a little extra help should they over produce cerumen/keratin. 

"Never place anything smaller than your elbow in your ears".

Cotton buds can push wax dangerously further down the ear canal and onto your ear drum. We strongly advise against the use of cotton buds in your ears as you could cause wax to travel deeper than it should be, soreness, pain or at worst perforate your ear drum. Instead, use olive oil to soften the wax and seek help from us at Be Hearing to safely and comfortably extract the wax from your ear canals.

Our Audiologist has been on the training faculty for microsuction at Imperial College NHS Trust, being involved in direct training, teaching, supervision and signing off competencies for all trainee delegates, so rest assured you are in capable and caring hands.

Wax can take form of a solid mass if it has been in your ears for months to even years without softening or treatment. 

If the wax has a larger surface area to the opening of your canal or is simply too "heavy" or compacted for an air suction method to be used, it may be manually removed using singe-use sterile tools, which are safe to use by our Audiologist. 

Sometimes, a manual extraction method could be used simultaneous to the air microsuction method to fully extract the wax and debris from your ears.

The decision to use a manual extraction method and/or a microsuction method will be decided by our Audiologist on the day of your consultation.

Upmost care is taken to safely remove any wax to allow you to hear well again!

Wax that has been formed quite recently in months rather than years can have more of a lighter and softer texture, it can be broken up easily and tends to be easier to extract from the ears. 

Equally, if you have softened your ear wax in your ears 5-14 days before your treatment (depending on how hard or compacted your wax is or was found to be during your consultation, the olive oil used may soften the wax enough for it to become easier to remove.

A microsuction treatment involves a low level suction pressure that uses a vacuum to remove any wax, debris, foreign bodies or keratin (dead skin) from your ear canals. 

A single-use sterile suction probe is used to remove any debris safely and carefully by our Audiologist.