Impacted cerumen as a reason for failure in hearing conservation programs.

To test the hypothesis that children with impacted cerumen experience more hearing or middle ear problems than children with normal cerumen, two serial audiometric screenings including otoscopic examinations, tympanometry, and audiometry were conducted. Thirty children with impacted cerumen and 30 children with normal cerumen were rescreened three months after the initial screening. Results suggest an association between impacted wax and subsequent problems.