All About Earwax

Even though earwax isn’t pretty, the ear needs the stuff to stay healthy and work well. What we know about earwax tells us how to clean our ears and deal with problems when there is too much earwax in the ear canal.

Many of us have an urge to clean inside the ear canal with something like a cotton swab, but this simple-looking action can cause a chain of bad things to happen in the ear.

Let’s take a moment to think about how earwax works, what your earwax can tell you about your ears’ health, and how to clean and take care of your ears to avoid problems.

What is earwax good for?

Even though earwax is unpleasant, it performs several essential functions in the ear.

It’s a security guard for your ears. When dust, dirt, or other debris enters the ear canal, earwax keeps it from getting in. At the entrance to the ear canal, the eardrum is a thin, sensitive membrane called the tympanic membrane. Debris must be kept from the eardrum to avoid damage or even a hole.

It keeps the ear canal moist. As sound goes deeper into the ear, it hits a chamber filled with fluid. On the way to that part of the ear’s anatomy, the walls of the ear canal need to be moist to keep the shape of sound waves from changing.

Each of these things that earwax does is important for hearing, and the balance between them must be kept in check.

What can you learn from your earwax?

Your earwax can tell you a few things about your health and what it does inside your ear.

The darker color of earwax in adults shows that it has done an excellent job of catching dirt, bacteria, and other things before they can get into the ear canal. If the earwax is too dark, it could mean that the ears have been exposed to a lot of air pollution.

Children’s earwax is usually a lighter color and softer than that of adults. If your earwax is red, it could mean that there is an injury in the ear canal. If you find blood in your earwax, you should see a doctor.

People with white, flaky earwax don’t have a specific chemical in their bodies that are used to make body odor. Stress and exercise can cause the overproduction of too much earwax, but healthy ears will get rid of it on their own instead of letting it build up in the ear canal.

How do you clean the wax out of your ears?

With all of these critical functions in mind, you won’t want to risk taking out too much earwax. Not only can this cause your body to make too much or too little earwax, but it could also let in debris or dirt that can hurt the ear.

The only place you should remove earwax is on the outside of the ear before it goes into the ear canal. As a general rule, you shouldn’t put anything in your ear that is smaller than the end of your elbow. A cotton swab is definitely in this group!

You can clean your ears by wrapping a clean, damp cloth around your finger and putting it in the folds and creases of the outer ear. Putting something into your ear canal will push some of the earwax deeper inside, which could be bad for your health.

Your hearing health needs to keep the sensitive parts of the inner ear safe. You can soften and clean the ear canal by putting a few drops of mineral oil, glycerin, or hydrogen peroxide and then flushing it out with warm water. Don’t try to clean out your ear canal on your own if you have a problem with too much earwax.

If you think that earwax has built up in a way that hurts your ear canal, you should see a doctor. However, it would help if you never put anything into your ear. With these tips in mind, you can keep your earwax from packing inside the ear while letting it do its essential job in the ear canal. Contact us today!