Ear Cleaning
Don’t stick anything smaller than your elbow in your ear - Anonymous
image by: Toronto Family Hearing
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Sorry, But Experts Say You Should Not Be Using Earwax Removal Kits
Ah, TikTok, home of makeup tutorials, lip-syncing tunes, cute animal content and—earwax removal videos? Yes, it’s true, that goopy amber stuff on your For You page is coming out of someone’s ear canal. And, if you find that you’re weirdly into it, you’re not alone.
Earwax removal content is soaring in popularity on TikTok; the hashtag #earwax has racked up thousands of videos, collectively reaching 5.1 billion views (graphic material at that link). The content ranges from in-office extractions performed by Ear, Nose & Throat doctors to at-home videos of people using various tools to get the sticky stuff out.
The options for earwax removal kits and techniques seem endless.…
Resources
The Whole Ball of Wax: A Longer Than Normal Post About Your Cerumen
So what do you do with your ears? The first question is why do you think you have to do anything? If it’s just wax, it’s supposed to be in there.
Doctors admonish us to leave earwax alone. Why won’t anyone listen?
Earwax is useful stuff. Some ancient physicians smeared it onto wounds as a soothing salve. Others thought its taste should be used as a diagnostic tool: a hint of sweetness, one doctor wrote, was a sign of impending death. Even today, doctors say it’s the most natural of soaps, carrying dead skin cells and debris out of hearing’s way.
Health Check: what you need to know about ear wax
The ear canal is essentially a cul de sac of skin that, unlike skin everywhere else, doesn’t get to remove dead cells through physical erosion. Ear wax is the creative solution to this problem.
How to Clean Your Ears (Properly), According to ENTs
Cleaning your ears is often a private, gross moment between you and a Q-tip, but according to ENTs, if you know what’s good for you, you’d stop fussing with your ears completely.
The Best Way to Clean Your Ears: With a Spoon
Doctors strongly discourage people from scraping inside their ears. But knowing better and doing it anyway is part of what makes us human.
Wax on, wax off? Why cleaning your ears might do more harm than good
Are you the type who loves to dig your ears? It might feel enjoyable but there's a danger to it. And guess what, you might not need to clean your ears, after all.
How to clean your ears
The best advice is never to put anything smaller than your elbow in them, says a hearing specialist.
Cerumen Impaction
Manual removal with a curette is a long-recognized method for clearing the ear canal and is considered effective, but no published trials have compared it (or any other manual method) with other removal methods. There also are no controlled trials comparing the different irrigation tools.
Clearing Wax Buildup With a Candle in the Ear
Ear candling, also called coning, involves hollow candles made from a cylinder of fabric covered with wax. They are put in the ear canal and allowed to burn down in a process some practitioners claim creates a "negative pressure" that sucks wax, fungus and other impurities out of the ear and up through the candle. So wax and ashes don't drip on you, the candle is placed through a hole in a disposable pie tin or Styrofoam plate wrapped in aluminum foil.
Ear wax
Ear wax only becomes a problem if it causes a hearing impairment or other ear-related symptoms. The accumulation of wax occurs for many different reasons, including the over- or under-production of its constituent components, a failure to self-clear because of slow skin migration, or mechanical issues such as the use of cotton buds or hearing aids.
Ear wax removal interventions: a systematic review and economic evaluation
The study found limited good-quality evidence, which makes it difficult to differentiate between the various methods for removing ear wax. Although the study was able to show that softeners have an effect in clearing earwax in their own right and as precursors to irrigation, it remains uncertain which specific softeners are superior.
How to Remove Earwax: Don't Use WaterPik, Candle or Q-tip
And whatever you do, don't stick a tube in your ear and light it on fire. "The granddaddy of all the bad things to do are the so-called ear candles," Rosenfeld said.
If you make one health resolution this year, it should be to stop cleaning your ears
The best thing you can do to clean your ears is to leave them alone.
It’s International Ear Care Day! You’re cleaning your ears wrong
Surprisingly, not much research has been done on our predilection for earwax spelunking. But a small study in 2005 found that just over half of respondents at an ear, nose, and throat clinic used cotton swabs to clean their ear canals.
Nature’s Ear Plugs
The yellow stuff in the outer part of the ear canal, scientifically named cerumen, is only partly a waxy substance, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. The rest of the so-called wax is an accretion of some dust and lots of dead skin cells, which normally collect in the passage as they are shed.
The Good, the Bad and the Eww of Earwax Removal
Ears are supposed to be self-cleaning. So what's behind the fascination some people have to help nature along?
We Talked to the Guy Behind YouTube’s Most Satisfying Earwax Removal Videos
The good doctor also shows you exactly how much gunk he pulls out of the ear in question at the end of each video by lining up the wax and dead skin next to a ruler. Gross! Great! Wow!
What’s the best way to clean out my ears?
There is a vast array of items on sale which say they will clean your ears or remove ear wax, but do any actually help?
What’s wrong with traditional ear irrigation or syringing?
Syringing and ear irrigation aim to remove wax blockages by squirting water into the ear canal and behind the blockage, in the hope that the water will build up enough pressure behind the blockage to push the wax out. It’s a slightly counter-intuitive process because to get the wax out; you have to push water in, and this has many risks, including the risk of pushing the wax further into the ear canal. As the nurse cannot accurately see deep inside the canal, it is also not possible to perform an ear examination behind the blockage first. If water is squirted into an already-perforated eardrum or a middle-ear infection, there is a risk of re-perforation.
You Asked: Should I Use Q-tips to Clean My Ears?
It says right there on the packaging: “Do not insert swab into ear canal.” Speak with an ear-nose-and-throat doctor, and you’ll hear the same thing.
An Intriguing, Totally Not Recommended Method for Clearing Your Earwax
Every six months or so, I unfold a paperclip, slide one looped end into my ear canal, and scoop out a soft-serve, fragrant, orange-brown globule of wax.
Sorry, But Experts Say You Should Not Be Using Earwax Removal Kits
Videos for these products are soaring in popularity on social media, but doctors recommend cleaning your ears in a much less invasive way.
Should You Use Q-Tips to Clean Your Ears?
There is a proper way to use Q-Tips and there is an improper way. If you’re putting them in your ears, you’re using them the improper way.
StatPearls: Ear Irrigation
Some providers may choose to soften the wax before irrigation. Multiple agents may be used including mineral oil, 1% sodium docusate solutions, and carbamyl peroxide solutions.
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