hi everybody my name is Rhys Barber I'm the audiologist here at audiology
associates we upload new ear wax removal
videos every Monday Wednesday and Friday
at 9 p.m. UK time so please consider
subscribing hi everybody this is Rhys
Barber from audiology associates thank
you very much watching our ear wax removal
video today so this patients come
through with a very blocked up here lots
of difficulty hearing general day-to-day
sounds not coming through very very well
struggling to hear family talking no
pain in here but just just really
blocked up so what you can see is we've
got the standard size on the tube in
here at the moment we've got very soft
bubbly ear wax here at the entrance to the
ear canal patient has been using a few drops
to try and soften this up a little bit
has been a regular producer of ear wax in
the past but has neither reason cleaned
up for a few years so hence why there's
quite a bit in here so what you can see
here is we're lifting the ear wax from the
ear canal wall first we'll try to unstick it
now if the ear wax is quite a solid block by
unsticking it we can take it away in one
large piece but because this is this
softer most of bobbly ear wax here at the
entrance then you'll find it it's it
unsticks but it you don't get enough
grip to take a whole chunk away in one
go so just train our best to leave this
out the you peeling away from that
bottom right hand corner of the ear canal
wall there it's a little bit of
whiteness and release which is a little
bit of dry skin in there which is just
detached away from the ear canal wall I'll
still trying to work on that bottom
section there just to try and then stick
some of it from the ear canal wall now you
can with very sticky ear wax like this use a
little bit of olive oil as I've said to
you in the past though excuse me you you
can it can sometimes be a bit of a
blessing and a curse because it will
reduce the stickiness to the ear wax but you
do sometimes lose some of the visual so
I'm trying to hold off I use another
violet and
so we really need to do it especially
where you can see there's lots of these
little finds Cilla
hears around the outside which are quite
pronounced so the olive oil would stick
to that and block the view so Tracy we
can go in a bit deeper before we have to
use the olive oil as you can see now
we've managed to get a little bit of
leverage to this right-hand side a
little bit of purchase on the ear wax it's
very very dark in colour can you see the
consistency of the ear wax no has changed
we've gone from that very bubbly bubbly
looking ear wax on the outside sectional to
a much thicker darker looking ear wax a bit
of a slightly smoother surface to it so
the outer section you can see is where
the drops have come into contact with
ear wax and she reacted with the ear wax itself
and started to break it down but now
we've got to the pieces that the drops
haven't touched so it's this much
smoother thicker darker type of ear wax in
there don't forget that things like
peroxide people use peroxide a lot but
things like peroxide drops actually melt
the fat and dissolve the fat that's in
actually in oils that means binding the
ear wax together which is where you get that
bubbling effect to the actual ear wax itself
we've introduced a little bit of olive
oil now just to try and help us to
loosen some of these thinner pieces off
the ear canal wall just slow in a video down
here we're just going to take some of
this away to the left hand side gives
you actually managed to get a piece
that's broken away there see it you saw
somebody get sucked into the machine and
then we'll take the next piece out and
then we're just gonna work our way down
to the next piece you can see that we've
got these smooth they're much thinner
sections of ear wax against the ear canal wall
these are gonna be quite firmly attached
there so if we just lift slightly the
olive oil can work underneath it and
which would reduce some of that
stickiness there in that adhesion to the
ear canal wall really just trying to lift we
can see how firmly wedged in here this
is and yeah but the colour of it the
very very dark colour we know that new
ear wax is almost white cream in colour older
ear wax dry or ear wax tends to
very very dark that much deeper Browns
and black colours so you can see here
that we've got this this really is a
deep brown colour this chestnut brown
colour ear wax so it's really old old stuff
what the patient had been say they've
been using drops intermittently over the
last few years getting a problem of the
rear canal a blocked up put some drops
in which has alleviated that hearing
issue but what's been happening is it's
just created a small gap in the ear wax so
it has been allowing some sound through
but not getting rid of the underlying
cause it's just alleviated the symptoms
for a few months so what we've ended up
with is ears and years of ear wax that is
all impacted together very very deep in
the ear canal that's the reason at the
moment I'm you know I don't really want
to use the Jobson horn in here because I
can see just how thick and hard this ear wax
is if we go in when it's this deep we
run the risk of pushing we could
definitely push up against the eardrum
so best not to use the jobs on hold as
you're working on the outer portion of
the ear canal just for patient safety
reasons really so I'm using the edge of
the there's on the tube to try and break
break some of this ear wax down so try and
loosen it a little bit you can see we
lost the visual again there so we're
using the suction to hold onto the ear wax
and we're using the edge of this on the
tube just to press against the bottom of
it just a break maybe out as you can see
there just a just to slightly loosen and
break up this section to the right-hand
side
you can tell just how firmly wedged in
it is there so I'm moving to a slightly
different spot trying to break it down
again just to see if we can get to this
top section now we're not getting much
luck there in the bottom right so we're
gonna move across this left-hand side
just try to gently scrape along the
surface of the ear wax throughout there you
go now you can see that pieces broken
away that's what we're trying to use by
by using the side of the sauna tube is
just trying to break little chunks off
you can see how we've got almost like a
little overhang at the top so we're
gonna be able to pull that down there
we've got rid of that bottom section
when you're removing ear wax so this is a
case of chipping away little sections
creating space to move other pieces of
the ear wax into that space so we've got to
the bottom sections now we're pulling
this top section down into the ear canal
using the same technique of just gently
brushing along the outside of the ear wax
looking for movement and breaking the
ear wax down you can see as I passed along
that a little bit of movement to the
bottom section here that shows me that
that's loose so let's take that away now
there we go you can see the whole thing
is starting to get a little bit of
movement there not a tremendous amount
so just put a little bit more olive oil
in and you can see what I mean about the
visual now it it can blur the camera
slightly sometimes so it's it's always a
difficult one to judge when it's you
know you're always weighing up the loss
of visualisation compared to how much
how much benefit you'll get from putting
the oil in loosening the ear wax itself this
whole right-hand section is starting to
move we can see it just you can see the
actual oil compressing out from the
sides as we move it so we know the whole
section is moving it's just trying to
find the right position on here to be
able to hold on to it see you again a
little bit more movement there it's
loosening up
there we go let's pull across to the
right again this even get some gum there
now we're starting to see the movement
there you go so now we've got it so as
it pulls away now on this right hand
side you can see the whole thing move
forward so we've got it to the outer
part of the ear canal now so we're going
to try and get this out with suction if
we can if not because we've got it to
the outer section we can switch the
tools now and put the jobs in horn in if
needed but let's see if we can get this
out just by moving this ear wax down the
ear canal it gives some relief because you
imagine that piece of ice was perfectly
formed to the ear canal walls very deep in
the ear canal so it's it's really
uncomfortable for the patient to have
the ear wax there and especially when you're
trying to remove it as well because
you're moving the ear wax out of its normal
position or you're pressing against the
ear canal walls so it can be quite
uncomfortable so they you do get a sense
of relief not only with hearing but as
the sensation in the you as well when
this moves out you can see what I'm
trying to do in a moment is fold this
left hand side turn the ear wax basically to
bring it forwards because it's too big
to fit up the ear canal it's not really
budging so we can use the jobs and home
really safely and effectively here so
just creeping over the top if we pull
down out comes the ear wax you'll see it
there we go there it is so that's the
block that was sitting really deep now
if we look behind that now you can see
little white blob at the top a little
looks like a little pearl you'll see it
again there when the suction tube moves
that's how she's something called
exostosis basically it's it's a little
bony growth that you find in the ear
ear canals you talk about we call it
swimmers ear here in the northern
hemisphere in the US and suddenly
hemisphere they call it surfers ear so
what you have is its little bony
outgrowths that you get in the ear canal so
a secondary layer of bone that grows on
top and it forms these little kind of
pearly pearly sort of lumps in the ear canal
now this one was very small its benign
is not gonna cause any problems at all
but it's yeah it just starts to appear
at the top of the ear canal
although this last section to take away
from close to the eardrum
that's all come away nicely there we go
take a good look at the eardrum I'll
point out that Alexis doses there it is
so you can see it just at the top
there's nothing to worry about it's just
something we keep an eye on basically
with this but other than that everything
looks looks okay in there this is what
we removed so you can see the the chunks
of ear wax that came away in the colour that
reddish brown thicker harder type of ear wax
that we get there
and there we are so probably just under
an inch if we squished it all together
thank you very much for watching our
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next time take care