Ear Wax

Producing ear wax is normal and healthy. Ear wax helps prevent infections of the ear canals. Ears are self-cleaning and rarely does ear wax need to be removed. Under no circumstances should you routinely use q-tips to clean your ears. Q-tips can push the wax deeper into the ear and also cause ear infections.

Symptoms Of Ear Wax Blockages

  • Feeling of fullness in ear
  • Earaches
  • Hearing loss
  • Ringing in ears

If the wax is not properly removed, an infection can develop that can lead to pain and fever.

Treatment For Ear wax

In order to diagnose a buildup of ear wax, your doctor will need to look in your ear with a special magnifying instrument called an otoscope. Once the problem has been located, the wax buildup can be removed a couple of different ways:

  1. With a small curved instrument called a curet
  2. Suction

Gary Livingston has been designated an Inspire Excellence Surgeon. The award is given to recognize excellence in 3 areas of Inspire: Expertise, Patient Experience, and Clinical outcomes. Only 50 surgeons out of the current 1000 eligible Inspire surgeons have been designated Physicians of Excellence, and Dr. Livingston has been the fastest Inspire surgeon to receive this honor.

Dr. Livingston has also been named one of the Top Doctors® of 2023 by Castle Connolly.

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