Earwax Do's and Don'ts

DO:

• Nothing. Ideally, the ear canal creates and gradually ejects earwax from the ear.
• Wash the outside of the ear (but not the ear canal) with soap and water.
• If you have excessive earwax buildup, it may help to put a drop of olive oil or baby oil in your ear canal once a week.
• Use over-the-counter earwax removal kits only if your ear drum is intact.
• See your doctor if olive oil, baby oil, or removal kits are not successful in removing impacted earwax, or if you experience pain, increasing difficulty hearing, tinnitus or ringing in the ear, a feeling of itchiness, a discharge or odor from the ear, or dizziness.

DON'T:

• Put anything smaller than your elbow in your ear, including cotton swabs, keys, pen caps, bobby pins, paper clips, or toothpicks.
• Employ ear candling to remove earwax buildup. Studies have shown it to be ineffective and potentially dangerous to the ear canal.

Cerumen? What's that all about?

FACTS ABOUT EAR WAX (from our friends at Bionix Medical Technologies)

• Medically named cerumen.
• Primary components of cerumen are shed layers of skin, kerative (a family of fibrous structural proteins), saturated and unsaturated long-chain fatty acids, alcohols, squalene, cholesterol.
• Fear, stress and anxiety result in increased production.
• There are two distinct genetically determined types of cerumen; wet, which is dominant, and dry, which is recessive.
• Caucasians and Africans are more likely to have the wet type - honey brown to dark brown and moist.  East Asians and Native Americans are more likely to have the dry type of cerumen - grey and flaky.
• Cerumen type has been used by anthropologists to track human migratory patterns!