yeah great now i think i've got cancer every two seconds and i'm gonna freak out every time i see a q-tip

seriously guys, i use q-tips pretty regulary, i don't want to lose my hearing guys! guys?
guys!
is there any good alternative to it other than FLUSH or PICK WITH YOUR FINGERS??

yeah, leave it alone: http://www.livescience.com/health/080829-earwax-removal.html

Basically the only reason earwax ever causes problems is because people mess with it and cause it to clog up the ear canal.

Melee, pick up some Exterol from the local pharmacy because what you probably have is conductive hearing loss caused by earwax having clogged up in the ear canal. Not really a serious problem and pretty easy to solve! I'm no doctor but I've had this before and a bit of Exterol (Otex over here) solved it completely - my doctor advised me to use it and also to stop using cotton buds (q-tips), and I haven't had a problem since.

Q-tips are bad? o_O

Then how am  supposed to clean my ears? :S

I always clean my ears with those...

Each day when you take a shower, flush your ears with warm water for 10-20 seconds. This should get rid of some of the excess/old wax, but not too much.

Basically the only reason earwax ever causes problems is because people mess with it and cause it to clog up the ear canal.

Not necessarily... some people just produce more wax than others, or have wax that clumps together more readily. I think that old wax tends to dry up and clump together too. Of course having some wax is good, but having too much is pretty nasty for anyone who happens to look at your ear.

flushing? what kind of gay shit is that, my doctor removes my wax with a spatula

Yeah, but surely if you just leave it there it builds up and looks absolutely shit. I mean, this is the kind of thing you would get teased/tease others about in school, it's not a good look.

Yeah, but surely if you just leave it there it builds up and looks absolutely shit.

No, it gradually clears itself out as new wax is produced. Think of it like a conveyer belt.

What you've described is Cerumen Impaction. You shouldn't ever put anything larger than your elbow into your ear! (That means no qtips!!) The ear is self cleaning so you shouldn't need to use qtips in the first place to clean out your ear wax. It does serve a useful purpose.

Putting in 3-5 drops of mineral oil/baby oil/any kind of oil two to three times a day for a couple of days will help soften the ear wax so that it can be flushed out (irrigated) by your physician. The irrigation itself isn't painful at all. In fact, it actually feels kind of warm and fuzzy. (I've had it performed on myself a couple of years ago before I got into pharmacy and learned all this. And yeah, my case is pretty similar to yours. I was cleaning one of my ears with a qtip when I pushed in the earwax further into my ear and up against the ear drum. Of course, I tried fixing it by playing around more with the qtip, but that caused more harm than good! I ended up trying Cerumenex at first, which is something that you should never go with unless directed by a physician as it can be sensitizing. It didn't work for me. I did the whole ear wax softening regimen with oil and then went in for the irrigation and that flushed all the impacted ear wax out. I could hear again instantly. A lot of people have had this happen to them because of qtip use. If you actually look at any qtip product box it'll specifically say that it shouldn't be used to clean out ears. But that's what everyone uses them for... It's such a health hazard. I've seen a fair amount of people with hearing loss due to qtip use in the pharmacy.)

I take it Melee Master that your doctor put you on Ciprodex. Just make sure you shake the bottle before using it each time, and when you instill it into your ear, you pull back and up on your ear to help open up your ear canal to allow better entry for the drops. Then after putting in the drops, remain on your side for about a minute or two to allow the drops to drain deeper into your canal. I'm sure your pharmacist when over this already, but it never hurts to have a reminder!

Hope you feel better soon. Typically if there is an outer ear infection the ear drops should take care of it and you shouldn't feel any pain within 48-72 hours.

But you can't stick your elbow into your ears!!!

maybe not your ears...

But you can't stick your elbow into your ears!!!

Well, yeah that's the point. That saying illustrates that you shouldn't put ANYTHING into your ears.

It sounded like he was talking about a middle ear infection.

I mean, my condolences, but why would you stick a q tip in your ear you stupid idiot?

OK I'm sorry for calling you an idiot but it was an exceedingly dumb thing to do.

ok ok when I was little I stuck a pencil up my nose and the eraser got stuck and I had to go to the hospital to get it out.

I regularly clean my ears out with any sharp object I can find; tweezers, pencils, pen tips, and nail files.  Not only does wax harden in my ear real quickly (one time I literally peeled a film off and dug out this huge clump of deep brown shit that looked like fucking tobacco) but it clogs up easily.

Maybe my conveyor belt is jammed

Isn't that...painful?

yeah but I can tolerate it

So I've been taking the antibiotics my doctor gave me. (Plus some sort of mucus thinner he suggested) and I can sort of hear now. I mean it's not what it was, but it's a lot better and a lot less annoying. It seems when I go to sleep and wake up again it's back to where it was and takes a little bit to clear out but for the most part once I'm awake for a bit I'm okay. I think I'll go see the doctor again at some point if it persists in being like that when I wake up, but oh well. It's nice to have my hearing back!