Earwax (Cerumen) is good stuff with a bad image. You can think of it as self-draining engine oil for the head. Like engine oil it collects dirt, repels water, and lubricates the ear canal. It even curtails ear canal infections. After doing all of this it gravitates outward to be washed or wiped away. And while it sometimes looks dirty, it keeps the ear canal healthy. In fact daily removal of wax from the ear canal can cause problems.

The most common complaint is too much earwax. Who tends to generate too much wax? - earphone users, hearing aid wearers, car drivers or passengers next to open windows, seniors, and ironically, those who regularly clean out their ears. These activities stimulate the wax glands to produce more wax. For decades medical providers have warned against using hairpins, q-tips or like items to clean ear canals because you run the risk of puncturing the eardrum or damaging the sensitive canal. But if you are among the multitude who do try to remove the wax, there is an another problem: you tend to push the wax back into the canal and form a plug, sometimes against the drum itself. This reduces your hearing, of course, but in addition, the wax plug prevents you from seeing the drum with an Earscope.

If you do clean your ears, warm water is the easiest and safest way to do it, while in a shower or tub. The traditional way is to use an ear syringe available at drug stores, but be sure to follow directions for its use. Two notes of caution before you put any liquid into ears: always warm the liquid to body temperature and secondly, do not put it in if the eardrum is ruptured, punctured, or if there are ear tubes. How do you know? Well, don’t add liquid if the ear is leaking or oozing, or if there has been a hard blow to the side of the head, or if you can see the ear tubes in place.

Sometimes ear wax hardens like wall plaster. There are drug store preparations like Debrox™ to help soften it if water treatments don’t work. But for deeply set, rock-hard ear wax or foreign items deep in the ear canal you had better have your medical provider deal with it.

For a full discussion of ear care including wax, ear piercing, swimmer’s ear, ringing of the ears, hearing problems, medications, and much more, see Dr. Rod Moser’s excellent book, Ears, An Owners Manual available for purchase on this web site.