Cerumen management
Ear Wax Removal in Wichita Falls
A fully blocked ear canal can cost you a meaningful amount of hearing. Clearing it properly takes a few minutes and no cutting, suction hoses from a hardware store, or candles.
Wax is not dirt, and you are not supposed to remove it yourself
Cerumen is produced deliberately. It is mildly acidic, it is antibacterial, it traps dust before it reaches the eardrum, and it migrates outward on its own as the skin of the canal grows. A healthy ear is self-cleaning. For most people the correct amount of ear cleaning is none.
The trouble starts when something interrupts that migration. Cotton swabs push wax inward and pack it against the eardrum. Hearing aids and earbuds act as a plug that stops the outward drift. Narrow or hairy canals, and skin that gets drier with age, both slow it down. Once wax is impacted, the ear cannot fix it alone.
The symptoms are unglamorous and easy to misattribute: hearing that dropped over days rather than years, a blocked or full feeling, your own voice sounding boomy, ringing that appeared recently, occasional dizziness, or a hearing aid that suddenly whistles constantly.
How we do it
The method depends on what we see when we look, which is why the first step is always a video otoscopy rather than an assumption. You see the same screen we do, before and after.
Video otoscopy first
We look before we touch anything. It also rules out the things that must not be irrigated.
Curette and instrument removal
Direct removal under magnification. Precise, quick, and no water near the eardrum.
Gentle irrigation
Body-temperature irrigation where the eardrum is intact and the wax is soft enough to warrant it.
Suction
For softer or deeper wax, low-pressure suction under direct view.
A hearing check afterwards
So you know whether the wax was the whole story or only part of it.
What not to do at home
Ear candling does not work. The residue people point to as "extracted wax" is candle wax, which is straightforward to demonstrate by burning one over a plate. It also carries a genuine risk of burns and of dripping wax into the canal.
Cotton swabs make impaction worse rather than better — most of the packed wax we remove was packed by a swab. Hydrogen peroxide and over-the-counter softening drops can help soften wax, but on an ear that is already fully occluded they sometimes swell it and make the blockage worse before an appointment. Never irrigate at home if you have ever had a perforated eardrum, ear surgery, tubes, drainage or ear pain.
When it is not wax, and when it needs a physician
Plenty of people arrive convinced it is wax, and the canal turns out to be clear. That is genuinely useful information: it means the change in hearing is coming from somewhere else, and a hearing evaluation is the next step rather than more cleaning.
Some findings need a physician rather than us. Active drainage or discharge, ear pain, a suspected perforation, a foreign body, sudden hearing loss in one ear, or vertigo with hearing change — those we refer out, promptly and without trying to work around them. Sudden one-sided hearing loss in particular is treated as urgent, because the treatment window is measured in days.
Common Questions
How much hearing can ear wax actually block?+
Does ear wax removal hurt?+
How often should I have my ears cleaned?+
Is ear candling safe?+
Can I get wax removed if I wear hearing aids?+
Do I need a referral?+
Keep reading
Hearing tests in Wichita Falls
If the canal is clear, this is how we find out what is actually going on.
Hearing aid repair
Wax in the device rather than the ear is just as common — and just as fixable.
Hearing loss: types and causes
Wax is conductive and reversible. Here is what the other kinds look like.
Get it looked at
A few minutes with a scope tells you whether this is wax or something that deserves a proper hearing evaluation.