Do you all ever get your ears cleaned? (kinda gross) (1 Viewer)

[Shawn C]

This reminds me of that bit on Sanford and Son when Fred had to go to the doctor about some hearing loss he had.

He freaked out when the doctor came at him with this HUGE needle/syringe and wanted Fred to hold a stainless steel bowl under his ear.

 

[Scott L]

There's nothing like the feeling of seeing & feeling a huge gob of wax shoost out your ear after you use that cheap bulb syringe

 

[AndyVX]

I go to one of my moms friends to get my ears cleaned out. I don't know what her actual job is, but she does this ear cleaning with these hollow wax candles.

Basically, I lay on my side, she sticks a candle in my ear, and lights it. In a few minutes it's done, and inside the candle is a ton of nasty ear wax! Turn on my other side, and repeat process.

Works well, though I wouldn't want to try doing it myself.

 

[StephenA]

I had my ears cleaned out by a doctor last year due to having a severe ear infection. Took him at least 10 minutes with this sucking machine to remove all the puss, wax, and whatever else was there. He kept asking me if it hurt because of my ear canals being severely inflamed and almost closed shut, and I kept telling it felt good and kind of tickled. He said that it was the first time that he met someone with that bad of an infection not complain about the intrusion. The infection was so bad at one point, it brought me to tears and the pain was worse than the kidney stone I passed.

 

[NickSo]

ha, us asians like Yee-ming here have earwax picks, which are metal picks with little scoop (kinda like a spoon) at the end... you stick it in your ear and literally SCRAPE out the wax..

My experiences with it is like Stephen A's and the sucking machine.... it kinda tickles, but in a good way.

 

[Eric D Wong]

Good lord! I think my grandmom had one of those (yes I'm asian if you cant tell by my last name). Anyhow, I'm going to make an appointment with the ENT. I seriously think theres something in my right ear. Ever since all that crap came out of my left ear it just feels different.

 

[Danny Tse]

Yee-Ming,

The earwax pick scares me. You can still buy them in Hong Kong nowadays....heck, my mom purchased some in HK last month. I am surprised customs didn't think we can use those as weapons

 

[Yee-Ming]

I see Nick is familiar with the concept Danny ya chicken, you should try it...

Having said that, I seem to have misplaced mine...

 

[JimmyM]

You people supporting ear candles aren't going to like this....

Still can't do links, so search for "ear candle" on straightdope.com or enter "Straight dope ear candle" into google.

Basically, Cecil Adams says that, as an experiment, they burned two candles: one in a guy's ear, one just on a table. Both had the supposed ear wax on the inside when they were done, proving that it's a sham. They also stated that the only effect the candle had on the guy's wax buildup was that inserting the candle made a small dent in it in his ear.

 

[teapot2001]

My mom used to clean my ears with the metal pick. Then came a point when I realized it wasn't safe and had her stop doing it.

~T

 

[Jay Taylor]

Jimmy, I agree with you that ear candles don’t suck anything out of your ears. I’ve owned a natural health shop for 10 years. When it first opened I was asked to carry ear candles which I did. Soon I discovered that they don’t suck anything out of your ears but instead actually blow hot wax into your ear.

This can be easily demonstrated with any ear candle by simply lighting one up and within about 30 seconds a stream of smoke will fall through the hole in the bottom of the candle. You may coat an entire plate with wax from this stream of smoke.

I also did the experiment where I placed the bottom end of an ear candle against a ceramic plate & lit it to simulate what it does in the ear. After about 10 minutes I blew out the candle, cut it open & found the same crud inside the candle that people were claiming was being sucked out of their ear. The crud was from the residue of the burned wax and paper or cloth that the candle was made from.

As a result of these tests I pulled all ear candles off the shelf & when customers asked for them I gave them a demonstration of their failure.

Nine years ago I offered a $50.00 reward to anyone that would bring in an ear candle that would suck as a result of the burning flame. After a year of no takers, I increased the reward to $100.00. Although I’ve had numerous people dash out of my shop to go get their ear candles that suck, none of them ever returned to claim their reward. Clearly they lit one up at home & saw the stream of wax pouring out of the bottom.

The reward has gone unclaimed now for nine years.

As a side note, applying a stream of hot vaporized wax to ears may have some benefits but since I’ve already made this post too long I’ll skip them for now.

 

[Richard Travale]

Ah, but you have now whetted my curiosity. What are the benefits of this to your ears?

 

[Jay Taylor]

The anecdotal reports from my customers who use ear candles for reasons other than wax removal are:

1. The heat from the vaporized wax helps your body to fight an ear infection in a manner similar to your body raising its temperature when fighting an infection such as the flu.

2. We’ve all had cuts and scrapes that sting when exposed to various things. When we put first aid cream and/or a Band-Aid on the cut the sting is greatly reduced and is less likely to get infected. When someone has an ear infection, using an ear candle to apply a layer of hot vaporized wax to the eardrum is similar to applying first aid cream or a Band-Aid.

3. One of my customers has ears that produce a profuse amount of earwax. The wax adversely effects his hearing. Before my soapbox lecture he thought that the ear candles actually sucked the wax out of his ears. Now he has concluded that the hot stream of wax from the candle melts a tunnel through his earwax enabling him to hear better for a few days.

4. Psychology 101: Because kids love to swim in water that makes adults cringe, many get ear infections quite often. The child with an earache may have numerous brothers and sisters that are competition for mom’s attention. So when mom spends half an hour using ear candles and petting the poor child the kid will tell mom they’re helping. A large part of the help doesn’t come from the ear candles but from mom spending time with the child.

 

[Mike OConnell]

I have a severe ear wax problem and use a large syringe and warm water every month of so to clean out the ear canals. I'm talking marble sized chunks every month. Sometimes I feel like Shrek.... Icould probably give him a run for his money!

Most people do not need the wax cleaned out of their ears as the shape of the canal will allow the wax to migrate to the outer edge and it will wash away during normal showers/etc. In addition, people produce different amounts of ear wax.

For those with ear canals that are an "odd" shape that collects the wax (ususally a hereditary trait) they need to clean the canals out on a regular basis.

The cleaning has a significant impact on the sound level and frequencies that I can clearly hear.

Mike

 

[CalvinCarr]

Every once in a while a chunk of wax will creep out of my ears. It like the tiny hairs work together to pass it out..

I had swimmers ear when I was 17. I was a lifeguard and got in a nasty pool. I went to my doctor. He used a big syringe with peroxide and all kinds of green and brown stuff came out. He gave me a bi syringe to take home and use a 50/50 solution peroxide/water. It's wored ever since.

 

[Scott Strang]

I am among the people who's ears produce enough wax to make it necessary to visit an EN&T about every 18-24 months. Both ears have the same problem but one of them is more affected by the build-up. Back in 97 I had gotten to where it really was annoying and my ears itched constantly and my hearing was being muffled.

Went to the EN&T and he spent a good 10 minutes getting the was out of both ears. It had been about 12 years since having it done last and it was apparent. Some of the wax had hair in it from haircuts and my ears did bleed quite a bit. But it didn't hurt. After it was done he poured some peroxide in my ears to soothe the irritation. After getting home I noticed that everything was too loud including flushing the toilet. Every CD and DAT that I had recorded prior to getting my ears cleaned was hotter on the left channel since that's where my hearing was affected by the build-up. I had to go back and redo those recordings since I couldn't tolerate them with the severe channel imbalance. When I made them originally I remember the level indicators being hotter on the left channel but I just figured the meters were miscallibrated.

 

[Phil_L]

I had my ears cleaned using the water jets at my doc several years ago. However, I later heard from a source I can no longer recall (probably TV) that shooting water in there wasn't good for your ear. Last year, at my ENT, my doc said he saw lots of wax and used a tweezer-like device to take it out. It wasn't a pick, at least I don't think it was. It was nice to have it removed without the water jets. I have also used the store-bought solutions, which do a pretty good job.

 

[CalvinCarr]

How about the people that actually pick their ears and lick or smell their fingers.....

 

[Magnus Nord]

Urgh, tell me about it, had a serious problem with ear infections when i was a child so ive had it about 10 times.

The pain is hard to describe and people who havent had it can never understand how bad it really can get. Sometimes it feels like someone is living inside your ear punching the walls very very hard.


And to the ear wax question, I had a doctor peel a large waxmarble out of my ear once, but since then i havent been there, havent had any large problems with it either.

 

[DaveMcS]

Ear Lavage (as its called in the medical field) is actually a standard procedure that any General Practictioner or family doctor should be able to do. If done properly (like any medical treatment) there is no risk of injury. A big syringey thing (like a cookie press or frosting gun) is filled with warm water and hydrogen peroxide and pumped into the ear with a little pressure. this is repeated until the "moldy raisin" of wax is dislodged. Little chance for damage to the ear unless there is some pre-existing infection or damage