Of course, I'm no medical professional, but here's my thoughts.

You haven't mentioned fevers (even low grade) or swollen lymph nodes in the regions, so that tells me it's likely NOT infection, even though the smell, and wax color seems to head in that direction.

Therefore inflammation, whether it be the ear drum, or other inner ear structure is what keeps popping in my mind. Has anyone considered a short taper course of steroids (Prednisone)? Inflammation would also fall into the ...itis category for whatever the substitute ENT was referring to. If it's inflammatory, you would notice improvement on steroids within a day or two.

You might want to place a call to the ENT office and ask them to look at her notes to see what she wrote down in regards to her findings (the -itis).