I watched an exciting documentary on TLC called “My Strange Addiction”. The show touches on different addictions people experience. This particle episode involved a woman who had an insatiable itch in her ears. She would put anything sharp she could find to scratch her ear canal. This included scissors, knives and paper clips.
As an audiologist, watching this lady shove sharp tools in her ear drove me crazy. According to the show she had not done any permanent damage to her ears. Lucky her.
Like most organs in our body, the ears do a great job of cleaning themselves. The skin of the ear canal migrates from inside to out. The skin that is by your eardrum today will be at your outer ear in a few months. This migration is how skin and earwax move out of the ear.
How are you supposed to clean your ears?
The preferred method of the masses is Q-tips. Have you ever read the Q-tip box? Do not put in the ear! The problem with Q-tips is that they push wax back in. Yes you do get some out (that’s what you see), but you have pushed some down into your ear canal. Earwax only is produced by the outer 1/3 of the ear canal, therefore if I look in your ear and see ear wax that is deeper than the outer 1/3 I know you have pushed it back in there with a Q-tip.
The best way to clean your ears is with water. As long as you have an intact eardrum, which most of us do, water helps to flush earwax. Some people may require the use of cerumen removal drops to flush earwax. Cerumen removal drops soften the wax so that when washing with water it flushes out easier. These drops can be purchased from us or over the counter at any pharmacy.
On another blog post I will discuss the topic of ear candles. If you want to get a jump on my post read the following webpage from The Mayo Clinic https://www.mayoclinic.com/health/ear-candling/AN02086