You can do the candle thing by youself at home. Actually, you need someone to do it for you. But anyways, the candle doesn’t really go in your ear. It kinda rests there and sucks the crap out.
Zoiks! So what exactly happens when you pierce someone’s ear drums? Would that make him deaf in the left ear or something?
A treatment for ear problems is LEMON JUICE. I used lime juice once in an emergency. Lemon juice squeezed directly into the ear than lay down with ear upright to keep juice in place. I wouldn’t do it with a broken (perforated) ear drum though. John H
hmm…i used to use Bic pen caps but after collective insight, maybe I’ll stop that potentially life changing habit 
I liked the advice about cleaning and itching - now I just need to stop wife cleaning my ears
My hearing is already far too sensitive: every little noise intrudes on my consciousness, and the big noises shake me up badly. My much-more-fortunate wife remains blissfully oblivious to the former and barely registers the latter. As long as I live in noisy Taiwan, I don’t want to hear even more, so I’m not the slightest bit interested in getting wax cleaned out of my ears. In fact, I’d rather have some more wax poured in to insulate me better from the noise.
But then again, if I could have it done by that nurse of Sandman’s, I might change my mind and give it a try.
Doesn’t the old ENT adage go, the only thing you should stick in your ear is your elbow?
My ears are stuffed with wax: what I think I need is simple syringing, a procedure that takes about 5 to 10 mins, but apparently this trivial issue is too much to handle for the Taiwanese health system. Yesterday I went to Wanfang Hospital hoping to have the problem solved, but not only did the doctors (three of them in fact) not help me, they actually made things worse trying to put different objects in my ear before they finally gave up claiming it can’t be cleaned. Eventually I got sodium bicarbonate eardrops and was told to come back again in a few days.
Now I’m definitely not going there again (the service quality was terrible, except at the cashier’s), but I still need to find some way to have the earwax removed. It is actually getting more urgent now, as my ear has started to hurt (I believe this is because one of the quacks pushed the earwax deeper inside my ear while pretending to do something).
Any advice as to what to do now will be much appreciated.
Have you tried doing it yourself? You can find instructions on the internet. Basically you just need to soak with oil for a few days, then buy a big syringe. I did this about 20 years ago, worked fine.
Otherwise, I find NTU is a pretty good hospital. It looks like it’s seen better days, but the service always seems fine and they have a lot of english-speaking doctors (if you need that).
Thanks for the suggestions, Finley!
I don’t really feel comfortable doing it on my own now. I’ll think about it in the future, but at the moment I’d just like to get my ears unclogged before I take a flight home for holiday next Friday. I can as well try Taida, it’s not really as if I had a lot of choice anyway. What’s the reputation of Xinguang? I was thinking of trying either of the two. Don’t need anyone speaking English, just someone who can remove the fricking wax; not breaking my eardrum in the process would be a plus.
Try looking at the suggestions in this thread:
(Which I found by entering the search terms ‘titties’ ‘suck’ and ‘sandman’; I am certainly glad that I can remember arcane details of 7-year-old posts made by our esteemed senior member.)
The general consensus seemed to be that you could get your ears syringed at any ENT clinic or GP office, and didn’t need to go to a hospital.
My ear canals are too small to use Q tips and such, but i’ve always used the bulb syringes, and they work wonders, even for the really bad cases.
Thanks Bababa! I read these posts before. I decided to start a new thread because that one was quite old, and the discussion somehow strayed away from the original topic. 
It was my belief it can be done anywhere, however yesterday I was proven wrong by the Wanfang Hospital. One of the doctors (ordering other staff about, so perhaps more authoritative) also told me that syringing is not practiced anywhere in Taiwan (which I find hard to believe).
I didn’t consider going to a clinic as I believe they’re mostly dirty and the staff might be even less qualified. I know there must be many good clinics “out there,” but I don’t know how to distinguish them, so it’d be like buying a lottery ticket as far as I’m concerned. I don’t want to push my luck.
I know I can basically try another hospital, like Taida or Xinguang, and hope for the best. If however someone has first-hand experience getting “ear shit” (as it’s called in Chinese) removed and can point me to the right place, I’d be much obliged.
Yes, not sure where the practice comes from, but all the Taiwanese doctors use a hand-gun thingy: steel and coming to a narrow point on the end with a powerful suction that can do serious damage to the ear if not used very carefully. I have been plagued with ear problems for as long as I can remember: no doubt caused by endless hours in the swimming pool during my competitive swimming years and later exacerbated by scuba diving. It was all further complicated when I perforated my eardrum at the age of sixteen. The perforation, I was told, would heal, but never healed properly and re-opens on a regular basis, especially if I equalise too abruptly or if I get an ear infection. My right ear is particularly sensitive and I wince if one of those suction guns comes within even an inch of it. I have been to more ENT’s than I care to remember over the past 12 years in Taiwan. Not one of them has ever offered to syringe my ear for me.
That said, are you sure it is a wax build up that is the problem. It could be an ear infection that is causing a similar sensation to wax build up. Anyway, recent thinking on earwax is that it should be left to come out naturally and there is no need to help it on its way. Be especially wary of Q tips. Even a microscopic laceration caused by the cotton wool to the ear canal (due to over vigorous cleaning) can lead to a middle ear infection. Q tips can also result in the wax being pushed further back into the ear canal.
Why don’t you just go to an ENT and describe the symptoms rather than instructing them to remove the wax. If you do have an ear infection there are only two things that are going to sort it out: a course of antibiotics or ear drops or a combination of both. Either will be infinitely more comfortable than that steel thingy probing your ear. I know there are ear drops designed to soften ear wax presumably making it easier to remove. But my guess is that you are going to find it very hard to find someone willing to syringe your ears.
Get Otozambon for your disconfort. Try Shanghai Pharmacy.
My ENT in Tapinglin does the suction thing with the metal gun. Really unconfortable, but a lot better. I haven’t found him or anyone who would do the cleaning with wax, even though back home it was commonplace.
Thanks for the suggestions everyone! I’ve just come back from the NTU Hospital, where my ears were cleaned using the suction gizmo. Hopefully the wax is all gone. Apparently it was possible after all.
ohh I am so happy for you.
ear problems are a right pain in the canal.
Thanks Urodacus! Actually I still feel my right ear is slightly blocked, although the doctor assured me there’s no wax in it anymore. Not sure what to think about it. Might be just a subjective feeling (or perhaps I’ll need to see a doctor again soon).
What I do is this. Gather two cotton balls, 2 towels, a bed pillow, and a small bottle of hydrogen peroxide.
Place pillow on couch.
Place towel on pillow.
Soak a cotton ball in H2O2.
Place side of head on towel on pillow.
Squeeze wet cotton ball into up ear.
Wait until fizzing subsides (a few minutes).
Grab towel #2, place over up ear.
Sit up.
Toss used cotton ball.
Repeat for ear #2.
Voila, clean ears.
OK, so my story goes on… I’ve been to yet another doctor today and apparently I don’t have any earwax anymore: what I have now is an ear infection. The doctor put a piece of gauze soaked in some mysterious medicine in my ear, telling me to remove it tomorrow with a cotton swab. Now as I’m not really convinced it’s a good idea to put anything in one’s ear like that and would rather not experiment anymore, I removed the gauze immediately after coming back home. I’ve also got some eardrops to take.
It seems until now the situation turned worse everytime I went to see a doctor. Hope this is the end of this trend.
Again, thanks for the suggestions everyone! It seems I’ll really need to become a DIY ear-cleaner (followed by a DIY dentist perhaps and what else). Otherwise the dichotomy is: be healthy or be lucky.