Ear Care

Since I was forty, my ears have tended to block up with wax. Eventually I found myself visiting the practice nurse at my GP about every seven months to have one of them syringed. Talking to the nurses over time, I grasped that the ear produces wax as self-protection from dusty environments. Farmers dealing with straw, and builders surrounded by dust and debris tend to be most at risk. Once the ears have started to block with wax, they tend to go on doing so. This made sense to me; I have been using an electric drill for DIY tasks round the home all my adult life, much of it drilling into masonry. Dry skin can also affect ear wax building up, apparently.

I started following advice by putting a drop or two of olive oil into the ears from time to time. This keeps things moist enough for the little hairs we have inside our ears to be able to push out the wax as it forms. I adopted this scheme in 2009, and my ears stayed clear until 2012. This was on a monthly oiling.

However, I found I needed to increase the frequency, as the ears were still blocking over time. Following a syringing out in March 2013, I decided to do the oiling once a week, to prevent the build-up of further wax if possible. It did not work: by November 2013 the ears were blocking up again. I mentioned this at the Lighthouse in Woking where I used to go once a week before lockdown to give life readings, and the others offered to pray over my ears, which they did. To my surprise, the blocked left ear unblocked spontaneously later that day, and both ears have remained free of wax for several years now. I no longer put any oil in. The wax seems to come out on its own, as it did when I was young. It's great!

October 2020 update. I have now had a blocked right ear again! It's been building up slowly over months. I have just used the Aculife Ear Wax removal syringe which I bought some years ago - I forget exactly when. It was designed by a doctor to send the water on to the sides of the ear canal rather than jetting it onto the ear drum. It was a success, as it had been last time: this was only my second go. It required five days of putting in Olive oil first, night and morning, to soften the wax. A useful tool. Available online.

David Pennant Woking