Ear dilema

[bodytronic]

Hi folks 💛 I recently followed some bad advice and put warmed, diluted tea tree oil in my slightly clogged, itchy ear not realising that Tea Tree can be Ototoxic to the Cochlear. I diluted 3 drops of Tea Tree oil in 30ml of Olive oil and put 0.5 ml in my ear. I let it sit there for around 10 minutes with my head tilted then gently squeezed the pipette to remove wax. I find this method works well but became concerned about the slight stinging I could feel and decided to repeat the process with just olive oil to try and clear out some of the essential oil. Soon after that my ear started ringing and hasn't stopped since. My GP suggested I try again with Otex since she could see some wax on the drum but I felt reluctant and a local ear clinic, along with the Tinnitus UK helpline have advised against this. I decided to try and find out what compound in Tea Tree is Ototoxic so I can avoid repeating the same mistake. It looks like it could be Salicylate, does anyone know? I thought about reverting back to just Olive oil but since discovering that contains Salicylate too I'm now less inclined to use it, in spite of there being no obvious bad effects in the past. I tried salt water which temporarily made the ringing worse and didn't help my hearing. Scraping the barrel now, looking at Squalene. Feeling out of options. Does anyone know of anything I could consider to help the wax on it's way? GP said there's not enough to remove through microsuction and I feel it might be tricky where it's on the drum.

[Happyrosie]

I see an audiologist privately because I wasn’t able to get my wax removed by the surgery.

She strongly advises me to NOT put olive oil in, nor bicarb drops, as the ear thinks it needs to make more wax when it detects these - wax is there to cleanse the ear. And she takes out any wax that is there. In fact I had it done yesterday, my hearing is improved even though the wax was only in the canal not the eardrum, and was only aasmall amount.

[Riders223]

Not sure but anxiety will make tinnitus much worse.

[Philip6]

Hello, you can actually buy an ear spray called Otosan which is used for cleaning ears and removing excess wax, it contains aloe and tea tree, I’ve used it in the past without issues and it gets very good reviews. All natural ingredients.

[Fridays_Child_62]

I suffer from the regular build-up of wax but don't like putting olive oil or bicarb drops in my ears. My tinnitus started many years ago when I was using drops (don't know which ones) to soften the wax before syringing. I also had a very bad experience when using bicarb drops, although the nurse had warned me that they would make the wax expand and make my ear feel even more clogged. Nowadays I use a water-based spray called Audiclean to keep the wax soft and flowing - I've used it or something similar for about 15 years or so, and usually put it in 3 times per week. I think it's derived from sea-water but it seems gentle on the ears. I still have to have the wax removed a couple of times per year though.

[Doxiemom1]

if you can’t take aspirin then it might be the salicyilate