Blocked, muffled hearing from wax. Softening it at home usually works — and there are things you should never put in your ear.
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Earwax is normal, useful and self-clearing. It traps dust, protects the skin of the canal and has antibacterial properties, and the ear moves it outwards on its own. Most people never need anything done about it.
Problems arise when it becomes impacted — causing blocked hearing, fullness or discomfort. Usually because something has pushed it inwards.
Three rules matter more than everything else here:
And the one that matters most: if your hearing dropped suddenly, do not assume it is wax. Sudden hearing loss is an emergency treatable with steroids within days, and it is routinely mistaken for wax while the window closes.
Wax is the default explanation for a blocked ear — and often correct. But it is also the explanation people accept while something more urgent is happening.
If your hearing dropped over hours or days, treat it as sudden sensorineural hearing loss until proven otherwise. That needs same-day assessment, because steroid treatment works only if started within days. It is very commonly written off as wax, both by patients and in initial appointments.
Here we should be direct about a limit: we cannot look in your ear over video. Wax is diagnosed by looking, and that needs someone with an otoscope in the room.
What a remote consultation does usefully is work out whether this is likely to be wax at all, and identify the situations where assuming wax would be a mistake.
Worth knowing, because this has changed and catches people out:
Usually all that is needed, and frequently enough on its own:
Olive oil is generally kinder than sodium bicarbonate drops, which can dry and irritate the canal.
Do not put anything in the ear if you have or may have a perforated eardrum, grommets, or have had ear surgery — and if you are not sure, get it looked at first. Also avoid drops during an active ear infection, or if there is discharge or bleeding.
Where oil alone does not clear it, microsuction is the safest option and the required one after any perforation or surgery. Irrigation is an alternative in suitable ears. Soften with oil for several days beforehand either way — it substantially improves the chance of clearing it in one visit.
Wax builds up faster, and it also blocks the device. Regular oil, routine checks, and cleaning the aid itself all help — and an aid that has suddenly stopped working is often wax rather than a fault.
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The ear is self-cleaning. Wax migrates outwards naturally, carrying debris with it, and washing the outer ear in the shower is all the cleaning required.
The old advice remains the best: put nothing smaller than your elbow in your ear.
They cause the problem they are used to prevent. A bud removes a little wax at the entrance while compacting the rest deep against the eardrum, where the ear cannot clear it. They also scratch the canal skin — the usual route into an outer ear infection — and every year they perforate eardrums.
If you use them, stopping is the single most effective change you can make.
Keep water out — and note that excessive cleaning is a leading cause, since it removes the protective layer. See otitis externa.
If your hearing dropped suddenly rather than gradually, do not wait for an oil course to work. Sudden sensorineural hearing loss is treatable with steroids started within days, and being told "it's probably wax" is exactly how people lose that window. Get it looked at the same day.
This is one where the NHS has largely stopped, and that is the single most useful thing to know. Most NHS practices in England no longer offer ear syringing or microsuction routinely, having deprioritised it as a low-clinical-value procedure. Many people discover this only after waiting for an appointment.
So the realistic options are private microsuction or doing it yourself, and the second is worth trying first because it works surprisingly often.
Olive oil drops cost about two pounds. Used properly — a few drops twice daily for at least two weeks, lying on your side for five minutes afterwards — they clear a substantial proportion of wax without anything further. Most people use them for three days, conclude they have failed, and book a procedure they did not need.
Where money is well spent is microsuction with someone who can see what they are doing — typically an audiologist or a specialist ear clinic, often at a high street hearing centre, and frequently cheaper than a private GP appointment. We do not perform this, and we would send you to someone who does rather than pretend otherwise.
What a remote consultation can usefully do is establish whether the problem is actually wax at all — sudden hearing loss, one-sided symptoms, tinnitus or dizziness may be something else entirely, and sudden sensorineural hearing loss is an emergency that gets mistaken for wax.
NICE NG98, Hearing loss in adults: assessment and management, is the governing guideline. It recommends removing earwax where it is contributing to hearing loss or preventing examination, and specifies ear drops, irrigation or microsuction as the accepted methods.
NICE Clinical Knowledge Summary, Earwax, covers conservative management — olive oil or sodium bicarbonate drops for at least two weeks before considering removal, which is the basis for the advice above.
NG98 explicitly advises against cotton buds and ear candles, the latter having no evidence of benefit and documented harm.
NICE NG98 also sets out the urgent referral criteria that matter here: sudden hearing loss developing over three days or less requires immediate referral, since sudden sensorineural hearing loss is treatable only if caught quickly. Unilateral hearing loss, tinnitus or facial weakness likewise warrant assessment rather than assuming wax.
No — and this is the main message of the page. They compact wax deep against the eardrum, which is exactly the impaction people use them to avoid. They also scratch the canal, which is how outer ear infections begin, and they perforate eardrums every year. There is no careful way to do it.
Do not use them. They have no evidence of any benefit, the residue found afterwards is from the candle rather than your ear, and they cause burns to the face and canal, blockage from candle wax, and perforated eardrums. This is one of the few things where the honest answer is simply that it is dangerous.
Warm the bottle in your hand, put in two to three drops, and then lie on your side with that ear uppermost for five to ten minutes. That last step is the one everyone skips, and without it the oil runs straight out. Twice daily for at least three to five days — and expect the ear to feel more blocked at first as the wax swells, which is normal.
Treat it as if it is not. Sudden hearing loss over hours or days is a medical emergency — steroids work, but only within days — and it is routinely put down to wax while the window closes. Get seen the same day and use those words. Wax normally blocks hearing gradually, or suddenly after water gets in.
Many NHS practices no longer provide wax removal, which catches people out. Microsuction is now the usual route — available at audiology clinics, many pharmacies and some opticians. It is safer than irrigation, and it is the only appropriate method if you have had a perforation, grommets or ear surgery.
Yes — several days of olive oil beforehand substantially improves the chance of clearing it in one visit, and not doing so is the commonest reason an appointment fails and has to be repeated. Check with the clinic, but almost all will ask for it.
No — not without being examined first. With grommets, a perforation, or previous ear surgery, drops can pass into the middle ear. That situation needs microsuction under direct vision, and it is important to say so when you book rather than assume.
Mostly by doing less. Stop cotton buds, take breaks from in-ear headphones — an increasingly common cause — and clean earphones and hearing aids regularly. If you are genuinely prone to it, a few drops of olive oil once a week keeps wax soft and moving, which is far better than trying to remove it.
August 24, 2026
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It means the diagnosis can usually be made from your history and photographs, and that treatment can be arranged safely without examining you. Where a condition is not marked treatable online, it is because examination is the diagnosis — listening to a chest, feeling an abdomen, examining an ear or a joint — or because a procedure or device is needed.
Yes, where there is a genuine bacterial infection — cellulitis, impetigo, bacterial urine infections, confirmed strep throat. We will also frequently tell you that you do not need one. Most sore throats, coughs, colds and earaches are viral, and an antibiotic gives you the side effects with none of the benefit.
If your problem turns out to be genuinely outside what we can do remotely, the doctor will tell you straight away, point you to the right service, and refund your fee in full. We would rather do that than fill twenty minutes to justify the charge.
Call 999 or go to A&E — do not book an online appointment and do not wait for a reply to an email. For urgent problems that are not emergencies, NHS 111 is available 24 hours a day, online or by phone, and can direct you to the right service.
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