[modeless]

To clean your ears yourself you need something like this: https://www.japantrendshop.com/coden-ear-scope-13000-standar...

I thought it was ridiculous when I first saw it but I took a chance on it and it is actually a great product. You can clearly see everything and clean without damaging your ear. If you've ever had to go to the doctor to clear a blocked ear, you need one of these. With occasional use (~once/month) your ears will never be blocked again.

[Baeocystin]

Man, I wish I had that a month ago- had a random hair from a haircut rubbing against my eardrum, and could. not. get. it. out. Thankfully have a physician friend who was able to scope my ear and remove the offender in about a minute, but it sure would have been nice to have been able to do so at home. Thanks for posting this.

[modeless]

Yes, I have used it for this exact purpose as well.

[maroonblazer]

Drops seem safer to me. I've had good success with Debrox, but there are a variety of brands.

https://www.debrox.com/products/debrox-earwax-removal-kit

[modeless]

The drops have not been shown to be any more effective than plain water. https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD...

I dislike flushing my ear with a syringe or squeeze bulb as it is uncomfortably loud and it seems possible to damage the eardrum with overpressure. It is also difficult to tell if it is working or how long you should continue doing it to ensure a clean ear, especially if the ear is not completely blocked.

The endoscope is faster, easier, more comfortable, and lets you see exactly how clean your ear is so there's no guesswork.

[maroonblazer]

I'd not seen that Cochrane study, that's interesting, thanks for sharing.

Sticking something pointy in your ear seems to carry its own risks. How do you ensure you don't puncture your eardrum?

[modeless]

Same way you don't cut yourself when using a knife, by watching and being careful. The endoscope makes it possible to see.

[beaugunderson]

I've sworn off Debrox after damaging my ear recently. The instructions say to leave it in for "several minutes"; I waited ~10. My hearing was impacted for several days afterward. In the one ear I got high-pitched feedback when watching TV, it sounded like someone was running sound through a guitar distortion pedal. It went back to normal after ~5 days but I was very scared that it would be a permanent effect.

[asiachick]

The reviews are pretty mixed

https://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%82%A4%E3%83%A4%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B...

But more interesting all the recommendations listed on Amazon. Tons of them, many 1/2 the price of the one above, but use your phone as the display

[modeless]

I find Amazon reviews fairly useless these days. Most good ratings are just because of fake or paid reviewers or other scams like switching the product while keeping the reviews, combining two products in one listing, and probably others I don't know about. Amazon seems powerless to fix it, or maybe they just don't think they need to care.

I haven't tried any of the phone based endoscopes but I expect the latency and reliability to be bad. When I'm controlling something that's deep in my ear canal I don't want latency or dropped frames.

[CryptoPunk]

How would a camera to smartphone connector add appreciable latency?

[modeless]

I don't know, but I am constantly amazed at the ingenuity of the people who manage to add latency to pretty much all modern hardware and software.

[dmoy]

Oh wow that is amazing

I also get mild tinnitus for the last 6 or so years due to earwax (once it got completely blocked and I had to go to the doctor to have them irrigate it back out).

I don't use cotton or any scraping right now, but I do use the same stuff the doctor used to irrigate it every once in awhile, to middling effect.

Maybe I'll try out that ear scope thing.

[jakear]

I've had great success with the ~$20 ear pump devices available at your local drug store. They look like a normal squirt bottle with a tube tip, you fill it up with warm water and just keep squeezing. I'm not sure what the scope would do for me... I can hear the ear is clogged, I don't need a visual confirmation.

[Fezzik]

I have been using these at least twice a month since high-school (20+ years) after having multiple dramatic ear infections that rendered me temporally unable to hear due to clogging. I was just at the ENT doc last week and he confirmed that my ears 1) look and function great and 2) there is no damage, at all, from using these mini turkey baster like devices when they are used correctly. I highly recommend them, but your own experience may differ and you should probably check with an ENT doc just to be sure.

[modeless]

I find that process uncomfortably loud, and I worry about damaging my ear with too much pressure. I also find it difficult to tell if it's working or if it's finished, especially if the ear is not plugged all the way yet, which I want to avoid.

The endoscope is faster, easier, more comfortable, and makes it possible to clean when the ear is not actually plugged and verify that it worked.

[dmoy]

Yea that's pretty similar to what I'm currently using.

[vram22]

In India a common practice is to go to a doctor (G.P.) who uses a foot-long syringe to irrigate your ears with warm water. It is supposed to soften the wax which then either comes out by itself when you tilt your head (lying down) after the syringing, or can be removed easily by earbud etc.

[sumedh]

> In India a common practice is to go to a doctor

The vast majority of poor and lower middle class Indians dont go to a doctor, they just go to an ear cleaner who sit on the streets and will do the job for you in 5 to 10 minutes for a dollar or two.

[galaxyLogic]

I immerse my head and ears in hot bath-tub. When I get out I put my little finger into the wet ear and then fast pull it out which creates some suction in the ear which sucks the water out and I think also some vax.

[ldarby]

That's risking rupturing your ear drum.

[devenblake]

Thank you very much for commenting this because I do the same thing and probably wouldn't have found out.

[galaxyLogic]

Well I think I do it gently enough. Have there been any reported cases of pulling your finger out of your ear breaking the eardrum?

[ldarby]

I can't find it now but I read a story, in I think in https://old.reddit.com/r/tifu, about a man and woman having sexy fun times. The woman's thighs were wrapped around the guy's head, she orgasmed, her legs spamsed, and because of the sweat her thighs formed a vacuum seal on both his ears and ruptured one or both of them.

There are plenty of other stories about ruptured ear drums though: https://old.reddit.com/r/tifu/search?q=eardrum&restrict_sr=o....

[galaxyLogic]

Amazing and terrible story

[coupdejarnac]

Yikes. As someone who's had two tympanoplasties, I would NOT do this.