Narrow External Ear Canal

Narrow ear canals can be a problem and lead to hearing loss, recurrent outer ear infection, wax build up that is difficult to clean with irrigation and trouble inserting a hearing aid. The causes could be exostosis (due to cold water sport), old age, infection leading to narrowing of the ear canal, trauma and surgery. Most of the time regular cleaning of the canal  with micro suction using a microscope is all that is needed but if that fails surgery is an option. If the bony part of the canal is involved one will have to do a canalplasty under general anesthesia. If only the outer soft  tissue part is involved one can do a meatoplasty under general or local anesthesia.