{"id":39,"date":"2019-08-04T21:20:54","date_gmt":"2019-08-04T13:20:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.entclinic.sg\/blog\/?p=39"},"modified":"2019-08-10T18:05:07","modified_gmt":"2019-08-10T10:05:07","slug":"my-ears-are-blocked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.entclinic.sg\/blog\/my-ears-are-blocked\/","title":{"rendered":"My ears are blocked!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Blocked ears are a common problem that we often see in our clinic. There are a variety of reasons why someone may suffer from blocked ears. Some of these are fairly benign such as ear wax impaction but some of them may be due to a more serious cause such as sudden sensorineural hearing loss.<\/p>\n<p>Most often patients come to us when their ears are blocked after swimming. This is due to the effect of water on a wax. The wax expands and blocks the ear canal.<\/p>\n<p>Many general practitioners or family physicians will offer syringing for wax. This is a simple procedure where a small jet of water is directed into the ear canal to flush out ear wax. Whilst this is effective in a majority of cases, it is sometimes unsuccessful. In addition, patients with signs of an ear infection in addition to blockage, such as pain or discharge should not have syringing performed<\/p>\n<p>In The ENT Clinic, wax removal is performed using microsuction. A surgical microscope and fine suction catheters allows us to remove all wax accurately.<\/p>\n<p>Another common cause of ear blockage is fluid in the middle ear as a result of pressure changes sustained during flights or diving. This is called&nbsp;<em>otitic barotrauma.&nbsp;<\/em>Often the patient has a cold when they fly or dive which prevents adequate equalisation of pressure in the middle ear.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-45 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.entclinic.sg\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/IMG_637006805852831288-300x240.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"240\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.entclinic.sg\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/IMG_637006805852831288-300x240.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.entclinic.sg\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/IMG_637006805852831288-617x494.jpg 617w, https:\/\/www.entclinic.sg\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/IMG_637006805852831288.jpg 720w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Left ear showing fluid in the middle ear. The presence of air bubbles suggests that prognosis is good<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The fluid in the middle ear may take several days to clear. Often the use of decongestants and the&nbsp;<em>Valsalva&nbsp;<\/em>manoeuvre helps. In some circumstances, surgical drainage of the fluid after making an incision in the ear drum (<em>myringotomy<\/em>). A ventilation tube may then be inserted to keep the hole open and ventilate the middle ear. This tube is called a&nbsp;<em>grommet<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The third and less common cause of sudden ear blockage is sudden sensorineural hearing loss. This is a medical emergency and treatment should be sort within 72 hours of onset. There is sometimes ringing or <em>tinnitus<\/em> associated with this condition.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color:#054d89; font-size:16px; padding-top:15px;\">\nShare this blog via:<\/p><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blocked ears are a common problem that we often see in our clinic. There are a variety of reasons why someone may suffer from blocked ears. Some of these are fairly benign such as ear wax impaction but some of them may be due to a more serious cause such as sudden sensorineural hearing loss. Most often patients come to us when&#8230; <br \/><span class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.entclinic.sg\/blog\/my-ears-are-blocked\/\">Continue Reading &rarr;<\/a><\/span><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ear"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.entclinic.sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.entclinic.sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.entclinic.sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.entclinic.sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.entclinic.sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.entclinic.sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48,"href":"https:\/\/www.entclinic.sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39\/revisions\/48"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.entclinic.sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.entclinic.sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.entclinic.sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}