Infected earwax buildup causes woman to lose hearing

A still from Raithatha's video shows how badly the woman's ear canal was backed up. (The Hear Clinic)

An audiologist in the U.K. who goes by the moniker “Wax Whisperer” has shared a gruesome clip featuring a patient whose earwax was so backed up that it had become infected. Neel Raithatha, who owns and operates The Hear Clinic, said the patient’s hearing aid had caused the wax to build.

“It would be impossible to self-remove,” Raithatha told The Sun, without identifying the patient. “The client in this case wore a hearing aid which can cause earwax buildup as it can prevent the natural migration of ear wax out of the canal.”

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Raithatha said the buildup was so bad that the patient could no longer hear and had developed a fungal infection surrounding the wax. He did not say when the extraction occurred, nor for how long his patient had been suffering.

Neel Raithatha, who goes by the "Wax Whisperer," said the wax had caused a foul odor in the woman's ear. (The Hear Clinic)

“The patient had a fungal infection, otomycosis, which developed on the dead earwax and skin and also otitis externa of the ear canal and eardrum,” he said.

It took about 10 minutes for Raithatha to completely remove the wax, which he said had caused a foul odor in the ear. The video shows him tugging at the wax to free it while cleaning the surrounding area.

He said the procedure lasted about 10 minutes, and that he was glad to help the woman who had become depressed after losing her hearing. (The Hear Clinic)

“I had to be very delicate when peeling the dead infected skin off the ear canal and eardrum," he said. "It usually takes half the time.”

He told The Sun that the patient required follow-up appointments to treat the infection.