Is the sharp noise in ear normal after ear wax removal?

Question

Hello doctor,

I had my right ear blocked from wax; the reason was I used earplugs to sleep for years. I went to an ENT doctor; he tried to remove it but said it was too hard; he prescribed an ear drop to make it soft so he could remove it later. On my first day of using them, my left ear started to get clogged as well from the ear drops. It sometimes opens for a second and goes back to the feeling of ear clog. I was told by the doctor to keep doing this for a week and see him after that; I could not handle both my ears being clogged for a week and not being able to hear well; neither of them open, and it is so annoying. I went to another doctor, and he removed the wax. Both of my ears were opened. I can hear finally, but when I went home, I noticed that now I hear sharper than before the earwax problem, and I hear better from the right ear, which was more clogged than the left ear; my question is, is it normal for the sound to be this sharp and for an imbalance in hearing to be present on the first day after removing the wax? Will this get solved by itself with time?

Please help.

Thank you.

Answer 1

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com

I understand your concern.

The problem you told me is normal and does not seem pathological. The ear drops that are being used to clean our external ear canal sometimes enlarge the wax and annoy patients. After the removal of the wax, hearing recovery occurs. The sharpened and asymmetric hearing that you told me will heal spontaneously after a while. But you should keep in mind that the ear tıps you use to clean your ear are harmful to your ears because they deteriorates our ear canal physiology and change the cleaning mechanism of our ear. Related to this, to avoid the occurrence of this problem again, you should not use these tıps. Further, using acid-base solutions like white vinegar locally to your ear canal and using a hair dryer to dry your external ear canal after showering will help avoid these problems.

I hope this helps.

Kindly follow up if you have more concerns.

Regards.

Thank you.