Our wonderful ear nurses, Jing and Cynthia, do not recommend you put anything in your ear canals to soften the cerumen prior to your visit with them. GPs used to recommend softeners, but that was because ear cleaning was carried out by syringing. Syringing is far more effective with softened cerumen.
As we use microsuction to clean the ear canals, softening is generally not required. In fact, softeners that you purchase at the pharmacy can change the consistency of the wax and make it more difficult to remove via microsuction.
Once in a while a stubborn case may require saline solution (which the nurse will do while you are here), or soaking with oil (at home, for a few nights). But, before you take any course of action, come in and see us and Jing or Cynthia can give you advice for your ear canal, once they have looked at it under a microscope.
The exception to this recommendation is if you have an ear canal infection and have been prescribed medicine to treat this. In this instance, please use the ear drops, but remember it the antibiotics or antifungals will work far more effectively after your ear canal has the infection removed.