Now Hear This
Posted by WhiteCoat on November 19, 2008
A parent comes in after seeing a black area in her child’s ear canal that appeared “out of nowhere” a few days prior. She feared that it was melanoma and was requesting a “CT scan or something” to make sure. Of course, this interaction occurred at 1:30 AM … on a school night.
No it’s not melanoma. It’s a scab from the scrape you caused by sticking a bobby pin into his ear to clean the wax out.
Cleaning ears is challenging.
Things that don’t work for removing cerumen from the ear canal:
1. Q-Tips. You may think that the Q-Tip is getting the wax out because there is wax on the outer part of the swab when you pull it out of your ear. Generally you’d be wrong. Q-Tips push the wax further back into the ear canal and tamp it down like tobacco in a pipe. Once the wax turns hard, it is a bear to get out.
In addition, you may push the Q-Tip too far back and injure your eardrum. That excruciating pain, the loss of hearing, and the blood dripping from your ear are a good sign that you have probably popped the drum.
Sometimes, the cotton may come off the top of the Q-Tip and get stuck in your ear canal. Then you’ll need to see a doctor to get the cotton out and to get the wax out.
If you need to get fluid out of your ear canal after a shower or after you’ve been swimming, twist a tissue up into a thin wick and briefly insert that into your ear.
2. Bobby pins and paper clips. You may get a little wax out with these, but chances are that you’ll either scrape your ear canal or that you’ll pop your eardrum while using them.
3. Ear “candling” or ear “wicks.” A good article about this process is here. You’ll burn your ear, hot wax may damage your eardrum, and the only thing that the process will remove is the money from your wallet. Ear candles don’t work.
Things that may help get wax out of your ear canal
1. Softening the wax. Use over the counter medications such as Debrox or mineral oil. Hydrogen peroxide may dissolve a small amount of wax when instilled into the ear canal.
2. Tincture of Time. Wax eventually works its way out of your ear. Chewing hastens the process. Some sources recommend that if the wax isn’t bothering you, then you shouldn’t bother it.
3. Mechanical removal. Ear wax that is causing symptoms either has to be dug out with a special scoop or washed out with a syringe. In either case, it probably shouldn’t be tried by someone that hasn’t done it before. I read one story about people using a WaterPik to get wax out of the ears. Ingenious, but I can’t imagine it feels very good and I worry whether the eardrum could be injured by a direct hit from the stream of water.
Letting water from a shower flow into your ear for a minute may be a safer option.
If you’re going to try to squirt the wax out with a syringe and some water, just make sure that the water is body temperature. Using cold or hot water will get you dizzy.
That old saying still holds true – “The only thing that should go into your ear is your elbow.”
scalpel said
I soak the canal with liquid colace for 10 minutes before irrigating. Works great.
Braden said
I just tried, and my elbow doesn’t fit.
EEJ said
I thought the old saying was “never put anything in your ear/nose that’s smaller than your elbow”….
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?rid=coffeebrk.chapter.cb31_wax
Dustin said
What works for me is a heating pad (under a towel).
I can remember being confused as a child when my pediatrician told me the elbow/ear story.
ERP said
I almost never try to remove wax from kids ears in the ER. All they do is scream and trauma is caused. OM is over diagnosed anyway.
I give then dubrox drops and send them home to remove the wax slowly over time.
RII said
I’m of the ‘just leave it alone and it’ll fix itself 99.9% of the time’ camp. I had a tiny bit of cotton get stuck in my ear once and it irritated me (I could hear it and feel it) for a week before peroxide washed it out.
ohn said
I am going to print out two copies of this post and staple them to each of my husbands ears. You probably know him…he is the one that insists on jamming Q-tips so far into his head that none of it is showing any more, then whines when he can’t hear through the concrete wax he has created.
ee said
I bet you 10 bucks that someone insists, in this comment section, that ear candling really works.
ee said
PS: Thanks for the tennis ball under the back idea. It felt great!
ee said
Er, that should read: PS: Thanks for the tennis balls under the back idea. It felt great!
OneDood said
Maybe if you take some maggots from the homeless guy’s ear in the next bay, and place them into the kid’s ear, they will eat the wax or at least drive it out. I guess I have spent too much time as an ED doc in an inner city hospital.
mottsapplesauce said
DH has a naturally oily complexion & creates so much sebum I told him he could start his own scented candle business. I have to syringe his ears out once every couple months– you wouldn’t believe how much is in there. Fortunately, he doesn’t go the cotton swab route so it’s never impacted. Warm water does the trick every time.
Braden said
Ear candling really works. I insist.
HyperAl said
Q-tip does work. Been using it or something like it since I was a kid. My kids does the same thing with no problem. My mother did not believe in “Do not put anything in your ear that is smaller than your elbow”, and trained us when we were young to clean our ears daily.
Wax does not come out of the glands surrounding the ear canal in lumps, so by wiping off the thin film of wax around the canal you prevent build up. If you only clean your ears one a week/month then, yes, you’re liable to push wax in and that’s where the above comment becomes valid.
I’ve been to three different continents, mostly third world countries, doing medical missions, and one thing I noticed is that as poor as these people are, most of their ears are clean. Most of them are passionate about cleaning their ears, as the sample picture illustrates.
On the contrary, I’ve removed the most ginormous ear waxes in this country. Look at the earpieces of the stethoscopes in the hospital, you might be surprised to see that some of them are coated with wax. If you can’t see it, wipe off the tip with an alcohol pad and see what you get.
Paul said
I believe the japanese refer to it as mimikake, and they sell special picks for the purpose. They’re usually tiny scoops, though. I’ve even seen one that has a tiny camera in the end, so you can see inside your ear as you clean it.
Here’s a video to show how mimikaki is done. How strange would a mimikaki-cam video be?
HyperAl said
Close, it’s “MIMIKAKI”
Interesting information, The first lip balm was actually made out of earwax. It was functional, but the taste was undesirable. However, its popularity has grown in recent years. A small but growing fan base, committed to the use of all-natural products, touts its use as a superior organic alternative to other varieties of lip balm.
Yikes..
Added a link to the Mimikaki. Thanks.
Sorry, but I’d rather have dry lips than put someone else’s earwax on them.
Liz A. said
I’ve had earwax removed at my doctor’s office and it felt like the nurse was using a water pic from hell. It was traumatic. I tend to use Q-tips, but just the outside and just inside gets really gross so I don’t like to feel the greasiness. It takes a great deal of restraint b/c I think Q-Tips really “scratch that itch.” but I really don’t want to undergo the water pic ordeal again.