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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Why do people abuse urgent care for earwax removal? [/quote]

It's not an abuse. If you can't hear or are in a lot of discomfort, you need help immediately. ENT appointments can take weeks if you aren't already a patient, and if your only ear issue has ever been wax buildup, it's likely you don't already have an ENT. You want people to sit around waiting for weeks rather than go to an urgent care where they have special equipment for water irrigation of ears? Why?

Urgent care is basically for medical issues for which it would be best to just go to a doctor's office, but you can't get an appointment. Anything more serious, you should go to the ER (I have twice gone to urgent care for things and been referred to the ER, because they really do not want serious medical issues at urgent care -- they can't take scans, have limited testing ability, and most people who work there are just medical assistants, not even RNs).

Urgent cares also need patients whose problems can be resolved fairly quickly, because they don't have the staff or facility for complex issues or people who need to occupy beds for longer periods of time (ERs are also overloaded in this way but they at least have the option of admitting patients). So the sweet spot for urgent care is quick diagnoses so you can write a scrip, apply a wound dressing, or refer to a specialist pretty quickly. Ear irrigation falls pretty nearly in that category -- it's takes a few minutes, you can refer to an ENT if the issue is more serious, and you can provide some guidance for preventing the issue in the future. [/quote]

You missed the point entirely. You don't need to go to a doctor for this. You can easily take care of it yourself. It would be like going to the doctor to have them cut your nails.[/quote]

The OP has a painful earwax blockage. They aren't going to urgent care for regular, periodic earwax cleaning (though it sounds like some people go to ENTs for this, which I *do* think is weird -- if you just flush them more frequently with water at home, you wouldn't need to do this).

This would be similar to someone going to a doctor for an ingrown toenail. Can you treat an ingrown at home? Yes. In fact it's sort of similar to dealing with earwax -- you soak it to soften the nail and use some special tools you can order online to lift the nail in order to trim it. But if you've never had an ingrown before, or if it's very painful, most people would recommend going to a doctor to treat it.

Back before our medical system got very, very stupid, people regularly went to their family doctor for stuff like this -- painful ear wax build up, ingrown toenails, etc. A nurse or assistant would deal with the acute issue (no need for a doctor to do it) and then the doctor would come and talk to you about how to prevent it in the future or how to treat it safely at home, info that people would have no other way of getting before the internet.

Now it's hard to get appointments with GPs and everything gets referred to a specialist. Going to a specialist for something this low level is silly -- ENTs really do not need to be spending their time teaching people how to clean ear wax from their ears. So what's the current solution? Urgent cares. It's actually not a terrible middle ground. It helps people with these minor issues without clogging up ERs or doctors offices, so that the higher paid and often more experienced medical personnel in both those of those places can focus on more complex or potentially dangerous issues.[/quote]

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