Since we are talking healthcare.... and personal hygiene…
Several years ago (not ears... but years
)... I read about an interesting treatment for allergy sufferers in a yoga book. It’s a self applied treatment called the sinus rinse.
You know when you go the ocean and after being in the water a while your nose starts running. Well, it works in the same way…
Take a cup of tap water and nuke it until it boils. Take a teaspoon of salt (preferably without iodine) and stir it in the hot water until you can see it all dissolved. Keep checking the temp until it’s close to 100 degrees. Go to a private place and stand over a plugged sink. With your head down and slightly tilted to one side begin pouring the contents into the top nostril. The salty (saline) water will travel through one sinus into the other and then out the other (lower) nostril. Repeat using the opposite nostril and keep going back and forth until the entire cup is empty. You may be shocked at what comes out (reason you plug the sink). I use a devise like what Manny alluded to a “huge syringe-like device” to inject the saline into the nostril. This way you can keep the saline from backing out the same nostril.
This is a tricky thing to do and will obviously feel like you are about to drown. When you get good at it you can even open that thingy in the back of your throat that allows post nasal trip…. some of the water will flow thru it and wash it out too. It all feels very good after you get done…. Well worth the trouble if you are an allergy sufferer like me.
I try to do it once a week. Good luck.