Should you be clearing your earwax?

Earwax is gross, and sticky – but very important. You shouldn’t poke around in your ears, especially not with cotton earbuds or other sharp objects.

Your ears are designed to clean themselves, and any meddling could do severe damage such as infection, rupture of the eardrum or hearing loss.

The cerumen or earwax is there for a purpose. And the only time you should clean the earwax away is if it dries out and pops out of your ears.

The truth about earwax

You shouldn’t worry about cleaning inside your ears because cerumen or earwax is the cleaner that the body makes to protect and moisturize your ear canal.

According to WebMD, your ears will be dry and itchy without earwax made in the outer section of the ear canal.

Having earwax is a sign of perfectly normal functioning ears, and it is undoubtedly not unhygienic. However, depending on ethnicity, age, environment, and diet, some people produce too much earwax while others produce the precise earwax that the ears need for self-maintenance.

It is an antibacterial filter that keeps out and traps harmful particles like dirt and dust, thereby preventing them from reaching deeper into the canal.
It prevents bacteria and other harmful infectious organisms from harming the inner ear.
Earwax absorbs dead skin cells and debris.
By chewing and moving your jaw, you assist with the movement of old earwax out of the ear canal to the ear opening, where it shrivels up and falls out.

What happens with a build-up of earwax?

The build-up of earwax is known as cerumen impaction, and this means that your ear canal in both or one ear has filled up with wax. This is accompanied by symptoms that may prevent your doctor from doing a proper ear exam.

If you use a cotton earbud, you will likely cause more significant inconvenience by pushing the earwax deep into the ear canal and right up against the eardrum.

These are the symptoms of cerumen impaction:

You feel like your ear is plugged.
The ear feels complete, and you have an earache.
There is a ringing in your ear, known as tinnitus.
A foul odour coming from your ears.
There is a discharge, and it is itchy.
You have impaired hearing or loss of hearing which deteriorates over time.
Muffled hearing
Coughing

Any of the above symptoms may not be due to earwax. Your doctor will need to check out your ears with a special device. If there is too much earwax, your doctor may be able to remove the wax blockage with a small cerumen spoon, forceps, suction device or by irrigation. However, for the latter, you would need to first soften the earwax with an oil such as sweet oil a few nights before seeing your doctor.

Safe ways to clean your ears

Besides visiting a doctor to remove earwax safely, these are safe ways to clean your ears at home:

Dip a cloth or paper towel in lukewarm water, squeeze out excess water and gently clean the outer areas of the ear
You can use over-the-counter ear drops.
You can use solutions such as baby oil, sweet oil, mineral oil, glycerine or hydrogen peroxide as ear drops to soften blockage until it pops out. The answers or oils should be warmed slightly to body temperature to prevent dizziness before using a dropper to drop the oils into one ear first, waiting for a few minutes with your head tilted to one side. Then repeat the procedure with the other ear.

There are irrigation kits on the market, but it is not recommended if you don’t know the underlying causes of your earwax build-up. Experts warn people with the following conditions not to use irrigation to clean their ears:

They have holes in their eardrum
Or are diabetic
They have eczema or other skin conditions in or around the ear
Have a weak immune system
Have a tube in their eardrum.

Avoid these methods

Cotton earbuds are everywhere, and yet it is not a recommended means of cleaning your ears, as they can do severe damage to your ears.

You risk the following conditions if you use cotton earbuds:

Injuring the eardrum
Pushing earwax deeper into the ear and thereby meddling with the natural removal of earwax
Getting the earbud stuck in the ear

Another product that doctors and the USA’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warn against is the use of earwax candles which have gained popularity in recent years.

Earwax candling requires you to stick a cone into your ear canal, which, when lit, drips hot wax into your ear canal. Experts say that the method harms in the following ways: burns the skin; punctures the skin; causes bleeding; causes holes to form in the membrane bridging the ear canal and the middle ear; it causes candle wax blockages in the ear and may even cause fires in the home.

However, despite assurances that earwax is normal, if you develop a blockage and fail to see it, the condition could worsen, leading to an ear irritation or even hearing loss.

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