Dealing with earwax

If it isn't noticeable I leave it alone. However, the ear that my husband snores into gets irritated and that builds up the wax, so sometimes I have to do something. It is ok to clean the wax out, but not by pushing! We can just put a few drops of homeopathic liquid in and it will drain out nicely. If that is not available, I have used 3% Hydrogen peroxide instead. There is also a little instrument available at most sundries stores that has a rounded end to prevent it from going to far into the ear that can be used to break up the build-up if there is a lot, although one must use it carefully and according to directions. I worked for a hearing aid manufacturer for a brief time and the head ear doctor told me that most of problems his customers had with their hearing aids was the result of their failure to wash their ears properly. One time a customer brought in a hearing aid that was completely filled up with orange colored ear wax. Somehow we were able to be polite to the customer and no we didn't tell him, but ewwwww, a bug had crawled into it as it lay on his dresser stand overnight. No wonder it didn't work.

I actually have a lot of earwax all the time. There have been times when it's drained down my face - yeah, gross I know... I do know that it's not good to use q-tips to remove it, you aren't supposed to put anything smaller than your elbow into your ear canal. They do have air-cans that will do the trick though.

I was always taught that the only thing you should ever put in your ear is your elbow (try it!) I totally agree that ear wax is natural secretions that should be left alone unless they are causing a problem (because, perhaps, the body is producing too much). If there is too much ear wax, though, it is likely to be a sign of infection which, of course, should be dealt with. The best way to remove earwax is to have it syringed out by a competent medical person but if you choose to clean your ears yourself, then use a dropper with warm olive oil to soften the wax and cotton wool loosely pushed just into the opening of the ear to soak up the softened wax. Cotton buds are a bad thing because they can damage the ear drum and, in themselves, introduce infection.

I had one girl who comes to my home she was not that much close to me, i dont know her well personally she had this problem actually when i asked her she said that she dint clean her ear wax and thats why she had that ear ache and some cyst has formed in her ear and it is very painful and now she is taking some medication for it now.. why does this happened only to her? well i dint know that i should clean my earwax till then,whenever i get ear ache my mom takes me to ear doctor and cleans the wax thats all i know by seeing this girl i learned that i shoudl clean it sometimes i poke it with my nails then since im a biology student i started learning hygenic things now i use a clean ear bud .. i cant fully agree or disagree your discussion it would be more helpful for me if you please post the link of the article.thanks...

Hello Sviswan. I have to say that I really love to clean out the wax from the ears. Each time I have a shower, I would use a cotton swab to clean my ears. I have been used to this for a long time. I feel more comfortable with the wax gone. But I think that so long as we are careful, it won't hurt our ears. Yes? Thank you.

I stick a piece of sterilised cloth onto a wire and push it straight through from one ear to the other, pulling the dirty end out of the opposite ear. No problems and no infections!! In reality I only collect what hits the end of my finger. I am fortunate in that my ears are not very waxy anyway. I am quite sure that your information is good though. Poking your fingers in simply pushes the wax deeper into your ears where it can compound and infect the ear canal.

I've read about this as well and it is worrying to me because I personally am one of those people who can't go 2-3 days without cleaning my ears out with a cotton swab..it gets too darn itchy and drives me crazy if I don't. Hopefully, there will be an alternative solution soon.

Hi Sandhya, I usually don’t interfere with nature and have never had an ear infection (touch wood). But long time back, my left ear was badly damaged during a phone conversation…you know I was talking intently and then suddenly from somewhere on the other side, this high pitched metallic sound was like a shaft of pain thru my ear and I literally fell down. My friend was of course oblivious to it and it did not want to get her worried so I said nothing but since then this left ear has been troubling me. Its not a regular ache, but I cant take loud noises or high-pitched tones and I use the earwax cleaner about once a month otherwise the ear tends to feel heavy from inside and starts throbbing.

well that is definitely true. I always clean my ear that cause of it to have a mild infection. Just last week I went to a doctor and it seems that some ear wax got clog up to my inner ear and I was scheduled for another check up after I treated the wax with some baby oil to make it soften and for the doctor to clean it up. To much cleaning can also cause a loss of your natural protection which also happens to. I got my ear so clean that an ant came in to my ear and bite me. luckily there are only bite marks but still due to excessive cleanliness my right ear got some mild infection.

I remove earwax from my ears every morning... because the inside of my ears tend to be very itchy when i don't... i think that is a good sign for me to remove them... or else i will have to deal with that itch the whole day... i remember my friend telling me that it is not good to clean the ears everyday... so when it doesn't itch... i don't clean it... but when it does... which is usually often... i get a cotton bud and clean away...

Hi SV Well i used to use cotton bud to clean my ears daily after bath, but i also read the same article and now hesitatent to do that Now dont know what to believe or not but now its habit for me Take care

I have the habit of cleaning my ear with a ear bud everyday after a bath. But I make sure it is just the outer surface and not deep inside the ear as I had always been told that it is dangerous.

Two months ago I've been cleaning my ears almost everyday after bath or shower! Untill one time that I think I pushed it too hard that makes my left ear hurts! But I ignore it knowing it will be fine for the next few day! Then after just one day I'm in so much pain and couldn't go to sleep at all and then the following we go to see a doctor and thankfully that I don't get bad infection! I just push it hard that make my ear canal swollen. After that never clean my ears everyday.

I don't clean my ear by my own. I go to my E.E.N.T. doctor once a month. and he told me about that thing too. We should not remove earwax from our ears using cotton buds 'coz it is being pushed in and it may cause infection. Take care of your ears guys...

I do clean my ears with a cotton bud every now and then and almost have a heart attack sometimes when I pull the cotton bud back out! I too have heard that it can be dangerous when the wax ends up compacted within the ear canal; but surely we have to do this once in a while to reduce excess build-up? The one thing that friends of mine have done that I would like to get done myself one day is to have their ear canals syphoned by a Doctor. Apparently the Doctor uses a syringe to pump and then extract a solution into the ear that cleans it out very effectively. They all swore that they had supersonic hearing after having this done!

I usually break out the Qtips every couple of weeks. I just get to the point that my ears are too itchy from the wax build up to leave them be. I've read that we're not supposed to clean them out very often, so I try to keep from doing it too much.

I fully endorse your views and agree whatever your have written - earwax should not removed using any pointed object such as needle or even ear-buds. My ENT specialists tells me that when it accumlates in excess, it comes out automatically, as and when we chew our food. I normally do not clean out wax from my ears. What do you do in this case?

I usually clean out my ears using ear buds and that's about it. My sons ears often block up so I was told by our family doctor to use a soluble solution which I do every few months, or depending on when he starts to not 'hear me' too well - he usually has a build up of wax when that happens.

Since I have an overabundance of ear wax, I clean them about once every two weeks. I do let it build up some but since there is so much, I do have to clean them at least that often or else I will get hearing loss anyway. As far as my kids are concerned I don't clean theirs except to go in with my finger and a rag. Not only because of the protection factor, but because I am just scared that since I don't feel where the Q-tip is, I will push it way too far and cause some immediate, permanent damage.

I cannot let it stand in my ear although it have a good cause for my ear because I always clean my ear wax everyday and even when it comes for the time of itchy period then probably I would clean it direct not even waiting for my after shower time......