Our Grandmothers Were Right. You Should Never Put Anything Smaller Than Your Elbow Into Your Ear
With the next flu season here, it’s time for flu shots and other preventive measures. Should you get your flu shot? People most at risk for flu complications definitely need flu shots, but so do health care providers and others who can easily spread the influenza virus. In October, we’ll cover some basics about the flu, as well as the latest H1N1 strain.
Everyone takes ear wax for granted. How many of us, for instance, even know that its scientific name is cerumen?
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Despite our indifference, however, ear wax plays an important role in keeping us healthy and alert. Without ear wax, you would face higher risks for ear damage and infections. Cerumen also keeps the ear healthy by lubricating the ear canal and by trapping foreign materials that enter the ear.
Ear wax really is your ears’ protective barrier against the outside world.
Produced by the ceruminous glands found in the skin that lines the ear canal, ear wax is a clear, watery liquid when it is secreted. This cerumen then turns brown when it mixes with discarded skin cells and dust particles. Nor is this the only change it undergoes. Ear wax is secreted in small, round droplets. It’s only later that it dries into the semi-solid that you recognize.
Under normal circumstances, ear wax moves unnoticed out through the ear canal where you remove it by washing your ears.
About 10 per cent of children and five per cent of adults have excess or impacted ear wax at any one time. As you can guess, ear wax problems are more common in children because they may not wash their ears properly or regularly.
Another group of people at risk for ear wax buildup are those who may not pay attention to washing their ears, for example nursing home residents or individuals with physical or mental handicaps.
Your ear characteristics may contribute to a buildup of ear wax. Your ears may produce high levels of ear wax, for example, or you may have narrow, abnormally shaped, or hairy ear canals.
Of course, your behaviour can also influence your ear health. Overzealous cleaning of your ears can push ear wax farther into the ear. Dusty work environments (think of grain dust) and scalp or ear conditions with inflamed, flaky skin can add to the debris that gets trapped by your ear wax, thereby hardening it.
Impacted ear wax can cause an ear ache, a feeling of fullness in the ear, ringing of the ears (also called tinnitus), reduced hearing, and even an increased risk for ear infections.
A few drops of mineral or olive oil will soften ear wax. Hydrogen peroxide combined with equal amounts of water will also help remove ear wax. Commercial drops either break down ear wax by emulsifying it, for example triethanolamine polypeptide oleate, or act like hydrogen peroxide, for example carbamide peroxide, to remove the excess wax.
Remember to warm these drops in your hands for a few moments before using them.
Ear wax drops can be used up to five drops twice a day and should remain in the ear canal for about 15 minutes. You do however need to use the correct technique to gain the most from any ear drop.
Have a second person put in your ear drops, or, if you put them in yourself, do it in front of a mirror. Tilt your head sideways, or if a second person is instilling the drops, lay your head down, with the affected ear up. Pull the upper edge of the ear upwards and backwards to straighten out the ear canal and help the ear drops run into the ear. Then drop in the drops, but do not touch the dropper to the ear. Massage the tragus (the flap of cartilage and skin which covers the ear canal) to help the drops to move into the canal. If you need to use wax removers for more than four days in a row or if you experience pain, check with your health care provider as they can irrigate your ear with a syringe, safely removing wax.
Ear candling is touted as a method of ear wax removal. However, Health Canada does not recommend it as there are no medical benefits and there are lots of risks, including pushing wax deeper into the ear, burns, hearing loss, and ear drum perforation.
Marie Berry is a lawyer/pharmacist interested in healthcare and education
