Earwax is an unpleasant yet important part of your ear canal’s overall health. It can feel uncomfortable when earwax builds up, which is why you’re probably guilty of trying to remove earwax from your ear canal on your own. Whether you do it with your pinky, a cotton swab or pieces of tissue, you probably don’t realize this cleaning technique is doing more harm than good. Let’s take a look at the harmful ways you may be cleaning your ears improperly within this article. A professional cleaning is always the safest way to go.
Ear Drops
With so many liquid products on the market today designed to keep earwax from building up, it’s no surprise that you probably are tempted to use them on a regular basis. These products are used by dripping them into the ear to loosen up the wax. Once you tilt your head, the wax comes flowing out. However, due to the differences in earwax composition from person to person, the drops don’t always work thanks to the various shapes of ear canals.
Cotton Swabs
The most common way of cleaning your ears? With a cotton swab. There’s nothing better after a long hot shower than cleaning out your ears with a cotton swab to feel fresh and clean. You may think you’ve done a pretty good job of cleaning out your ears; the fact is that you can hurt yourself, causing future discomfort. When you wield a cotton swab, the superficial earwax is caught and removed, but the rest can be pushed farther into the ear canal. This can lead to impaction of earwax as well as temporary hearing loss. You can also cause more damage if you attempt to fix it yourself.
Ear Candle
Ear candling is perhaps the most dangerous way to remove earwax. This is because these candles are made up of a fabric that’s coated in wax featuring a long wick, essentially using heat from the flame to create a vacuum in the ear. This in effect pulls earwax out of the ear, leaving the ear canal feeling both clean and fresh. Unfortunately, these candles can’t produce the required suction, leaving you with burns from the wax or the flame, which can also light your clothing or hair on fire.
Professional Ear Care
The only safe way to remove earwax is to head to a professional hearing instrument specialist. This person is highly trained to use a variety of tools in tandem with experienced hands to clean out the impacted ear wax that’s accumulated in the ear. These professionals are also able to provide you with an exam of your eardrum to check if any damage has been caused by earwax. It’s a great time to schedule future appointments to keep up with your ear care on a long-term basis. It’s for these reasons, you must leave the cleaning of your ears up to a qualified professional. This is so you can guard against any possible hearing damage from taking place. This is why you should take the safe option and do what you can to remove ear wax the correct way.