Ear Syringing

How Ear Syringing works and safety measures

This is the oldest method in the book.

Ear Syringing involves putting olive oil into your ears for three weeks to loosen up the wax. This can, however, be inconvenient and messy as the oil leaks out and gets on clothes, pillows and sofas. Moreover, the oil sometimes gets trapped in the ear canal by the wax, resulting in temporary hearing loss.

The oil is supposed to break up the wax and turn it into a runny sludge, which is then forcibly removed by a high-pressure water syringe administered by a nurse at your GP's surgery.

The water has to push past the wax in order to build up the pressure required to blow the wax out of the ear. This can be a messy process, but, of more concern, is the possibility of water remaining in the ear canal, as water in the ear is the main cause of ear infections. As if that's not enough, the high water pressure required to blast the wax out of the ear occasionally causes damage to the ear drum!