Plugged-ear guide
This guide is for a plugged or muffled ear that may be simple wax, not sudden hearing loss, severe pain, drainage, major dizziness, a foreign object, or recent ear surgery.
Start online
A blocked ear is not always earwax. Online review can help sort a low-acuity possible wax pattern from symptoms that need an ear examination, hearing test, urgent care, or emergency evaluation.
If treatment is appropriate, your physician can send a non-controlled prescription to your pharmacy and provide portal instructions for the next step.
Quick facts
Common symptoms
May fit online care
Look for another care setting
What to have ready
What happens next
Start the request on the website, answer the fit questions, and choose the response window you want. If the concern still fits this service, a physician reviews it and sends a secure update after sign-in. When appropriate, non-controlled prescriptions can be sent to your pharmacy, and a basic work or school note can be included at physician discretion.
Your physician
Every visit is personally reviewed by Ankur Fadia, MD — board-certified, cardiology-fellowship-trained, and Alpha Omega Alpha. Licensed in Virginia and West Virginia — your care is never handed off.
Sometimes. A gradual, mild plugged or muffled feeling without pain, fever, drainage, sudden hearing loss, or major dizziness may fit an initial online assessment.
No. Cotton swabs and other objects can injure the canal or push wax deeper. Follow only the physician's documented ear-care plan.
Sudden hearing loss, severe pain, drainage, severe dizziness, trouble walking, facial weakness, a foreign object or button battery, or recent ear surgery/trauma needs an urgent in-person ear examination.
Not quite what you have? These are the closest concerns this service covers.