Recently, I felt that my hearing in my left ear was a bit muffled, so I assumed it was earwax buildup. I used one of those earwax melting solutions that you drip into your ear, and it seemed to go too deep into my ear and, despite seeming to come back out, it's managed to cause my hearing to become quite muffled in that ear. My attempts to further clean it with q-tips the next day resulted in greater muffling, and while the first attempt appeared to remove earwax, nothing else came out. I'm wondering if perhaps this is hardened earwax buildup practically on top of my eardrum, or if maybe I've done some damage to my ear (no bleeding, no discharge, as far as I can tell, and no pain)...

It's really bothering me to think about, as I fear the hearing won't return (though that's unlikely, I imagine).

Hey,
Sounds very similar to what happened to me about a month ago. I started to feel my ears where clogged up, so i put some drops in, ottex i think they where called.
As i ride motorbikes i wear earplugs, so the next day when i put my plugs in, and then took them out later on, i noticed that the hearing in my left and right ear was terrible. In fact i could hardly hear anyting out of my left. Which is quite frightening, when i usually have quite good hearing.

I went to the doctors and was told that i had a massive clog of impacted wax in both my ears,caused most porbably by my earplugs.I was told i could have them syringed, which in my opinion is not a good idea, so i refused to have this done. So i went home and used the drops again which, after a few days, cleared the wax.

Whenever i put drops in they always block up my hearing for a few hours, becuase the stuff expands the wax, and sometimes gets stuck behind it. This isn't anything to worry about, and goes on its own.

Never use Q tips or put anything bigger than your elbow into your ears,i think you've most likely compacted the wax, like i did with my plugs, rather than damage the drum.

But to be on the safe side i'd say, go see the doctor. They'll have a look and tell you the best course of action to take.

Hope that helped, if only a bit.
Shaun.

its funny cuz i been to the doctor yesterday about this..in my right ear it felt like my ear was popped and i thought i was loosing my hearing so i went to the doctor and they said i had built up ear wax it was kinda embarrasing cuz i clean my ears all the time..anyways they cleaned deep inside my ear w/ a ear washer, it didnt hurt at all..its just a long tube connect to a lil thing, theye put the lil thing in ur ear and some liquid shoots out full blast into ur ear. this cleans the wax build up deep in ur ear..and when they finish u should be able to hear again..but i dont know if this is what u need tho..i really suggest u going to the doctor

Well, I had that feeling a couple of years ago and also thought it was wax, but after I used the ear drops and they didn't work, I finally went to the doctor.

Found out I had an ear infection! I would see a doctor just to be on the safe side. It could be an ear infection.

I've recently been diagnosed with an inner ear infection which makes you dizzy, nauseous, and weak. I didn't know what it was at first, but my ear started hurting a lot, especially on the right side. I went to the doctor, and sure enough, it was an inner ear infection. I missed 3 days of work over this and now it's the weekend, and I'm pretty weak still. They did give me some meds for the dizziness too, besides the antibiotics.

You really shouldn't mess around with your ears or take any chances at all, because you get some hearing loss if you don't get an ear infection cleared up right away.

Well, I'm not really thinking it's an infection. There's been no pain, nausea or dizziness yet (if you ignore the severe migraine I had the other day, but I get those regularly anyways). Impacted earwax was my thought as well, but I've been wary of using that solution in my ear again after it screwed up my hearing already. But, I was thinking maybe it melted the earwax and simply pushed it deeper into my ear when my head was tilted. I'll probably be able to check with a doctor in a few weeks, as my insurance hasn't gone through yet at my new job.

Well, I'm not really thinking it's an infection. There's been no pain, nausea or dizziness yet (if you ignore the severe migraine I had the other day, but I get those regularly anyways). Impacted earwax was my thought as well, but I've been wary of using that solution in my ear again after it screwed up my hearing already. But, I was thinking maybe it melted the earwax and simply pushed it deeper into my ear when my head was tilted. I'll probably be able to check with a doctor in a few weeks, as my insurance hasn't gone through yet at my new job.

You don't get dizzy and nauseous unless you have an inner ear infection.

There are other ear infections, such as middle ear, swimmers ear (I had that one too and it was very painful).

If this keeps up, I wouldn't wait until your insurance goes through. Just go to one of those walk-in clinics. They don't charge that much and get it checked. Good luck!