I’d like to go to a special clinic where they clean your earwax by digging it out like on YouTube, rinse and clean your ear canals so it smells good again. Do these exist?
I’m not looking for a hospital or a regular clinic where they do a rushed job and send you away with some medicine. This might be more like a Beauty clinic. But they need some experience so they don’t accidentally damage or puncture your ear drums.
Hospital ear nose throat department where the doctor will take a look and put a vacuum device down your ear. Will check the ear and if not clean will run the device again.
Or go to an old style barber where an old dear will stick some metal spoon like thing down your ear and collect some wax. May get a shoulder massage and haircut too.
No idea of any other options.
Searching for these characters 采耳工作室 shows up places on Google Maps.
I saw one in Taichung. But I have no idea if it’s good quality or just some witch doctor stuff.
掏耳計畫EARS CARE（采耳專門店)/台中采耳工作室
I had my ears cleaned once professionally, not in Taiwan. It takes time. They have to soften it with warm water or whatever and take their time. Mine took like 45 minutes and it still hurt a bit because it wasn’t fully softened.
Apparently you can do some at home with the right ear drops or hydrogen peroxide or oils or something.
Yea that’s the kind of stuff moms did with their kid, you know dig out ear wax with a metal spoon. It was kind of a mother-child bonding experience…
I highly recommend going to a ENT doctor.
ENTs here will do it, with NHI it’ll cost you $200. I’ve had it done a couple times, and need it done again now. It feels amazing. One I went to last time even had a little camera he put down there so you could see the inside of your ears on a monitor.
It’s called syringing. They used to flush it out with hot water but i think there’s more modern techniques.
You can squirt a few drops of olive oil into your ears once a day, this softens the wax and makes it easier to remove. If it’s not blocked the olive oil might cause the wax to come out naturally.
Chewing also helps clear the outer ear.
If people don’t chew, ear wax is the least of their problems.
Your ears smell bad?
A doctor previously recommended blow-drying ears after showering. That helps a lot in drying out ear wax. Some of it will naturally fall out. This has worked well in general for me.
Another thing I have done with some satisfaction is put a small dab of shampoo in both my ears and then gently rinse out my ears with water. The best is if some of the shampoo water goes into the ear canal. This helps remove some of the stickiness of the ear wax. The water may block your hearing for a few minutes, but just use more water to then gently rinse out the shampoo water and tilt your head both ways so the water can run out. Avoid spraying a strong beam of water directly into your ear canal. After your shower, blow dry your ears again.
Finally, from time to time I like to use a plastic toothpick (not wood) to rub along the insides of my ears (but not too far obviously!!!). I tilt my head while I do this. Chunks of wax will just fall out on a piece of tissue. This is very dangerous and I do not recommend this.
You really don’t want to put hydrogen peroxide in any orifice. It might work in the narrow sense, but your eardrum is incredibly fragile and it’s probably not a great idea to expose it to a strong oxidizing agent, even heavily diluted. Olive oil is commonly used, but you can buy wax softeners designed for the purpose.
Does it have to be olive oil? Can any old vegetable oil work?
I heard majority of the olive oil out there is actually not olive oil but colored vegetable oil…
Has to be olive oil. Something something oleic acid something.
Most olive oil comes from Spain.
Rape oil in your ear doesn’t sound quite as elegant.
So how would I know if some olive oil I buy is in fact olive oil?
If it reads WD40 you are in the wrong aisle.
How do you know that it’s your ear canals that smell bad? Do you wash behind your ears?
I stick my pinky deep in my ear, twist it a few times and then smell it, it smells pretty bad. Probably moisture built up over 20 years and beginning to decompose every time I shower.
What I mean is, Carrefour sells big 2 liter bottles of olive oil for around 200-300nt, while there are small 100ml bottles that sells for the same price. So which one do I get?
Moisture evaporates. It doesn’t decompose. Keep digging.
The cheapest bottle of extra-virgin should do as well as any. Having said that, you might instead try something non-organic at the pharmacy or a Watsons. They probably have drops for use in ears.
Also, I do not recommend ear drops. I have tried doctor-prescribed ear drops before and it did not help for me. If you have a lot of build-up go to ENT clinic for a one-time cleaning and after that blow dry your ears every time after showering.