16yr old. Excessive ear wax/blocked ears. Any advice?

[maldivemoment]

Hello. Our 16yr old is sadly plagued with excess ear wax & blocked ears. He’s a typical 16 yr old so plays it down most times.

However we’re just back from holiday & he was almost teary on the flight (landing) with the pain. Gave it an 8 out of 10.

That was a few days ago. He’s been out swimming (open water) with his friends today and has returned with blocked ears. Again got a bit teary when I was putting ear drops in (Otex. To soften the wax.) He says the drops are sore. Info leaflet says they should not cause pain, just a bit of discomfort perhaps.

(Apologies if this is over sharing but on the plane, when he was trying to clear his ears, he removed some wax & it was a pretty unpleasant smell)

He tends to get his ears syringed every 4/6 months but I’m wondering if we should do this more often?

Just wondering if anyone has any advice re treatment/suggestions for excessive ear wax. I would be most grateful to hear. (No pun intended!)

Many thanks in advance.

The advice varies because it depends on short term solve the problem vs long term stop it coming back.

i swim and I get a lot of ear infections and my ears produce a lot of wax,

once clear, using olive oil or another product every couple of weeks helps keep them clear. Otex also do a water spray thing that helps.

once blocked, water or olive oil can help the blockage come out but the wax also swells with water or olive oil which can be painful.

i personally find the otex drops very painfull although apparently they are not supposed to be.

if he is getting general pain from his ear they may be infected and microsuctiob/syringing won’t do it if he’s got an infection (at least they wouldn’t for me)

It depends on the cause.
I have very narrow ear canals and I get wax removed by an ENT specialist at least twice a year, often 3 or 4 times a year.
He has advised me microsuction is not suitable for me, though it's excellent for some people with wax build up. Really it depends on the cause.
In your DS's case it sounds like in ear headphones might be the cause so ear drops followed by microsuction should do the job as long as there's no infection present.
If it becomes an ongoing issue then consider a referral to an ENT specialist.

Yes my husband got an infection in open water in his ears. It infected his nerves and he has had 12 months out of work with ongoing neural symptoms.

Our local SpecSavers refused to do microsuction on our son, as he was only 16, and they only do adults, but do check locally. Otherwise prepare for lots of time sitting around in the hospital ENT dept.