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[Duuvian]

Hi. I was wondering if there is a product I could purchase that is basically a tiny camera attached to a USB port.

What this camera would be needed for is to look inside my ear to clean it, as I have a serious ear problem that I think would be helped if I was able to perform maintenance on myself; since otherwise I develop multiple expensive complications requiring facial disfiguring and balance eliminating surgeries when I go to the doctor. Now, before you lecture me on how I'm being foolish, I have a feeling that I am more aware of what I can do to fix my problem being inside my own body than a person who I haven't spoken to in years and I don't know from anyone else and who will only spend 5 minutes out of their busy day to help me. If you put a labcoat on a homeless person and gave him a shower he'd look like a doctor to me and they'd both ask me for money for their services.

Also, I don't know what doctor to ask to clean my ears since I could theoretically do it myself if I had the tools.

That entirely out of the god forsaken way, is there a tiny camera anywhere that I could stick in a USB port so I can investigate my ear on my own since I can't see sideways?

EDIT: Somebody invent it then

EDIT2: Basically if I could clean my ear, it wouldn't be plugged up anymore, at least to the ear drum. I don't even know if cleaning it so stuff can escape past it easier would help but it's sure a hell of a lot better than waiting until my head explodes. It basically feels like after you sneeze, when there is a lot of pressure in the ear until it readjusts. In my ear it never readjusts because it's blocked at some point. I want to at least take a look around inside it and try to develop my own treatment if possible since the surgeries I've described seem more convenient for the doctor as he isn't present at all times like I could be to drain my ear. His idea is to cut me open and yank it all out at once in one day. My idea is to let me try to work on it on my own. I've been letting it drain properly and such for years but with the proper tools I could probably invent a new treatment for the condition but I can only do so much without seeing inside my ear.

[Miggy]

In order to clean your ears: Wash them. Pour water into them while tilting your head, so the water doesn't immediately run out, let it sit for a short while, then tilt your head the other way so it runs out. Repeat until succesful.

As for doctors cleaning ears: Doctors use small vacuum-cleaner analogs, that just fit into ears. They do not scrape or poke. Camera or not, scraping and poking only pushes whatever might be in your ear further into it, worsening the problem. Not only that, but if you use a small metalic spatula, which I'm guessing you were planning to do, there's a good chance of accidentally ramming into the eardrum or other sensitive parts which will just cause irritation and pain.

Don't use those little cotton swaps, don't try to clean your ear with your fingers and don't try to use other form of instruments. Just wash them when you're in the shower and everything wilthy will run out with the water. Anything that doesn't will beyond your ability to clean, even with a camera and a mini-vacuum cleaner.

[Duuvian]

The problem with water is that it gets trapped behind my eardrum and risks infection, although you are correct in assuming that it at least jostles the junk around a bit. I have to be very careful (the doctor told me) not to get water in my ears or else it may become trapped somewhere inside my head.

EDIT: I'm not looking for a quick fix, I'm looking for a process that may be able to assist my ear in clearing out. For example. They put a tube in my ear before. If necessary I could have my ear drum removed, but I'd rather have another hole poked in it with a bigger tube or something. That is where the cleaning process would come in handy with a camera.

EDIT2: I say this because I'd prefer not to go deaf on one side if I could advance medical knowledge at the same time. As far as I'm aware, my case is exacerbated by environmental factors (cigarrette smoking parents) and as such was fairly unique as most cases are treated early. Since our wonderful health care system would have bankrupted my family it was time for tough decisions, such as can I put up with this pain in my head for years before my head explodes, or does my sister not go to school to be a veterinarian and I bedridden due to doctors (hospital's)orders $. So now instead I'm a healthy young man with a constant pain in his head, with no money and no camera to stick in my ear because some doctor probably patented it and made it unavailable for public consumption somehow so I have to go to the hospital and get his one day fix.

[Miggy]

If it's behind your eardrum there's absolutely nothing you can do. You can't clean behind that thing.

If your doctor advises you to not get water in your ear, it must be because you have a hole in your eardrum. I had that, as a result of long going middle-ear infection, and I know that it is excrutiatingly painful when you can water stuck in there. But that pain is exactly what you'll get more of if you try to fix it yourself.

If you're not happy with your doctor, get another one. If you're not happy with that one either, then find a third one. If all three agree to the same procedure to fix the same problem, then they're not the ones being stupid and greedy: you are.

The doctor you're looking for is an ear-, nose- and throat-specialist, wiki-fu tells me in english they're called Otorhinolaryngologists.

[Duuvian]

If it's behind your eardrum there's absolutely nothing you can do. You can't clean behind that thing.

If your doctor advises you to not get water in your ear, it must be because you have a hole in your eardrum. I had that, as a result of long going middle-ear infection, and I know that it is excrutiatingly painful when you can water stuck in there. But that pain is exactly what you'll get more of if you try to fix it yourself.

If you're not happy with your doctor, get another one. If you're not happy with that one either, then find a third one. If all three agree to the same procedure to fix the same problem, then they're not the ones being stupid and greedy: you are.

The doctor you're looking for is an ear-, nose- and throat-specialist, wiki-fu tells me in english they're called Otorhinolaryngologists.

You just said there is a hole in the ear drum. My cleaning method is gravity, man. I just want a camera so that I can see when a particularly big piece blocks up the process and I can poke it a lil to get the water out! I appreciate the help but this is how I think it ought to be treated. Perhaps making the perforation in my eardrum larger would help as well, but let's start with the camera first.

EDIT: My ear isn't totally blocked, with a GREAT deal of patience I can drain water out of it. However, without a camera I can not tell if it's taking the mess with it or if it will accidently get trapped and add to the pressure and chances of infection.

With a camera and a new tube I could probably keep the tube clean if I had the proper tools. That's what I'm trying to get at.

If any doctors/scientists see this thread feel free to shoot me a PM for !!SCIENCE!! and I promise it won't kill me. You'd have to supply me with a nice big ear tube and the ear camera, and I'd do my own treatment from that point on. Basically the stuff is leaking out but it's going slower than production I think. We just need to clear out the backlog.

[Miggy]

The way to get it treated is to remove the infection which is causing the fluid, and then the hole will heal naturally. If it doesn't, it will need a patch-job. That's what I had: They took a small piece of skin from behind my ear and patched it over my eardrum.

I can see that you're in a bit of a bind. You can't wash the filth out from the outside but it's blocking what's on the inside.

The only thing I can suggest is to have someone drip water into your ear very, very slowly, allowing each drop of water to enter the filth and loosen it up, then try to pour it out. Continue either until you feel any sort of pain (meaning it went beyond the eardrum and you need to stop now before you worsen the problem) or until success. Basically, instead of washing it out, try washing it out very carefully.

EDIT: To you, what is "A great deal of patience"? When I had the hole in my eardrum and I accidentally got water in it (for instance, if I madde a mistake swimming) I could wait for what felt like 30 minutes or more before the water finally got out. I'm not sure if I had particularly filthy ears, but I don't think I had. It's simply the fact that draining water out from behind the ear drum takes time, no matter how much ear wax is on the other side.

[Duuvian]

It's not infected, it's water that leaked out the last time. I went swimming once this year which I probably shouldn't have done but it was 105 degrees. Other than that I keep my ear dry as a bone. The swimming water all leaked out as far as I know. It's my wax and probably some leftover dead bacteria residue from an infection I had for a few months when I was in my teens that is blocking my ear. It keeps building up and leaking out slower than it produces, so something needs to be done, whether flooding it with water and letting it drain continuously, which seems to me a route to infection, or letting it slide out due to opening the channel with a tube and keeping the tube clean so the wax can flow through without removing the eardrum's structure; if that's possible.

EDIT: A great deal of patience means when my ear is telling me something is about to fall out I better lay on my side for the next three hours and stare at funny things on my laptop.

EDIT2: Also I didn't go under the water when I went swimming but still got water in my ear of course.

[Miggy]

Hold up, now I'm confused:

Is there water/stuff behind your eardrum that's not coming out, that you want out, but can't because of wax and other filth in your ear is blocking it?

Or is it the wax and other filth in your ear that's causing your pain?

If it's the behind the eardrum scenario, then you shouldn't have stuff back there in the first causing you pain, the only way you can get it there without it going through the eardrum, is via. infection. Ear wax won't go through a hole in the eardrum and get stuck behind it.

[Duuvian]

Well

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholesteatoma

[Miggy]

For that stuff, I'm out of my league. The only reason I know anything about middle-ear infections is because I had it myself. I did not have that, so you're on your own.

The only advice I can give I already gave:

If you're not happy with your doctor, get another one. If you're not happy with that one either, then find a third one. If all three agree to the same procedure to fix the same problem, then they're not the ones being stupid and greedy: You are.

And don't do anything stupid.

[ChairmanPoo]

Duuvian: are you saying you've been diagnosed of cholesteatoma? Because then you do need to go to the ORL. Cholesteatomas need surgical treatment. Simply "cleaning the ear" won't be enough by far. It's a serious condition.

[Fayrik]

In order to clean your ears: Wash them. Pour water into them while tilting your head, so the water doesn't immediately run out, let it sit for a short while, then tilt your head the other way so it runs out. Repeat until succesful.

This really is a terrible idea, and I can understand why the OP said no.
Putting water into your ears will definitely increase the chance of infection.

Now, personally I've been told to use cooking oil by my GP, but I'm not exactly sure how anti-bacterial olive and sunflower oils are.
I'd suggest something actively anti-bacterial, but the problem is, I'm not sure exactly what sort of fluid would be "ear safe".

But from the looks of what you've said about what's coming out of your ear, it sounds like it's behind the eardrum, in which case you really do not want to perforation larger.
And, you'll probably have to go and see a doctor again.

[SolarShado]

For general wax removal, I use a plastic/rubber bulb with a stem (similar to to this, but smaller of course) and warm water. Works fine and does the exact same thing that my doctor did.

I KNOW THIS WILL NOT WORK FOR THE OP'S PROBLEM, but thought it worth mentioning that it is a viable solution if you're sure you don't have any holes if your eardrum(s).

[PyroDesu]

I know that there's stuff on the market that you can use to dissolve (Or something, I'm not at all sure what it really does, because it doesn't work very well on me) ear wax.

Probably not too helpful if there's a hole in your eardrum, then It may be a very bad Idea.

[Neonivek]

I am sorry to say this Miggy...

But even for me if I intentionally place water in my ear there is a good chance it will get stuck there... >_>