Blocked ear: what to do, starting tonight
Work out what is blocking it, what helps at home, and when to stop reading and call a doctor.
An ear that muffles gradually with no pain is most often wax: start olive oil drops tonight (unless you have a perforated eardrum, grommets or discharge) and book removal if it has not cleared in a week or two. A painful, leaking or feverish ear is not a wax problem: contact your GP or NHS 111. Sudden one-sided hearing loss needs same-day urgent care.
The usual suspects, and how to tell them apart
Ear wax
The most common and most fixable. The story is gradual: hearing dims over days or weeks, your own voice booms, and one shower or earbud session finally tips it into fully blocked. There is no pain, just the maddening underwater feeling. Wax is likelier if you use earbuds or hearing aids daily, or if this has happened before.
Water
Arrives instantly after swimming or showering, often with gurgling. Usually drains within a day or two; tilting the head and gently pulling the ear helps. Trapped water on top of existing wax is common, since wax swells with moisture, which is why "it started after a swim" often still ends as a wax removal.
Pressure and colds
Blocked ears alongside a stuffy nose are usually the middle ear equalising badly, not a canal blockage at all. Both ears often feel it. This settles as the cold does; yawning, swallowing and gentle nose-blowing help. Wax removal does nothing for this, which is one reason we examine before removing anything.
Infection
Pain is the giveaway, sometimes with discharge, itching, or fever. Outer ear infections often follow swimming or overzealous cotton bud use; middle ear infections often follow colds. Either way this is GP or NHS 111 territory, not a wax clinic. If we find signs of infection at an appointment, we stop and send you the right way, unchanged.
What to do tonight, if it looks like wax
- Start olive oil: two to three drops or one spray in the affected ear, two to three times a day. Lie on your side for a minute afterwards. Continue for three to five days.
- Do not use cotton buds, hair grips, or anything else. Poking compacts wax further and can injure the canal.
- Expect it to feel worse first: oil-swollen wax muffles harder before it loosens. This is normal.
- Give it a week or two. Soft, recent wax sometimes clears itself once softened. If hearing has not returned after two weeks of oil, or the blockage keeps returning, book professional removal.
When you decide to get it removed
Our clinic at Davyhulme Pharmacy in Urmston examines both ears first with a lighted scope, tells you plainly whether wax is the culprit, and removes it by gentle water-free microsuction if so: £40 one ear, £60 both, and no fee at all if your canals turn out to be clear. Adults 18 and over. Most appointments take twenty to thirty minutes, and same-week slots are usually available; see the same-day guide for how fast it can realistically happen.