Dangerous Ear Cleaning Methods to Avoid

The ear is a self-cleaning machine. As a part of that process, earwax is produced – and if it were not produced, you would find that you would be open to many kinds of potential infections and other issues of that nature. So, earwax is very much fighting a battle for your health, and you should be glad that it is there. However, you might feel at times that you have a build-up of wax and that you would like to remove some of it. That can be done, but many home ear cleaning methods are dangerous and often even pointless and ineffective. In this article, we will look at a few of these methods which you should be sure to avoid.

Ear candling

For a while there, this looked to be all the rage. Ear candling is where you light one end of a candle and stick the candle in your ear. Supposedly, the melting wax will then drip down and magically remove earwax and so-called toxins from your ear canal. There is zero evidence of this actually occurring, and it is much more likely merely a hoax or, at best, a well-intentioned failure of a method. This won’t clean your ears of wax, but it could cause lasting damage to the ear canal if you are not careful, and as such, it should be avoided at all costs. Ear candling won’t remove the build-up of wax that you are trying to get rid of, so don’t worry about it.

DIY oil remedies

Many people try to remove wax from the ear using normal cooking oil such as olive oil. You might even be recommended this by a general practitioner. However, while you might be able to soften the earwax this way and so remove it more easily, you might actually be causing your ears some serious harm in the process. That’s because you are adding oil to an already naturally oily area and that mingling of oils is not necessarily something that your ears actually need. Try to avoid these home remedies, and instead make an appointment to see your hearing specialist. They will be able to clean your ears for you much more safely.

Cotton swabs and ear picks

This is the most common method by which people clean their ears at home, but it is one of the most dangerous you can possibly try. You should never stick anything into your ear, including a cotton swab or an ear pick. It is possible that you could cause damage to the ear canal, pierce or burst the eardrum and push the wax further into the canal, rendering the process obsolete and pointless anyway. Instead, allow your ears to follow their own natural self-cleaning cycle, and go and see your hearing specialist if you feel that you might be particularly blocked up with wax. Neither cotton swabs nor ear picks are going to help you, and they might even cause you more problems than they solve.