Why Cleaning Ears Is So Important & What's The Best Way To Do It?
It's critical to understand how to properly clean our ears. One of your most vulnerable body parts is your ears, which can become damaged and cause hearing loss if you don't practice basic cleanliness. Moreover, you can also face ear injury if you are not correctly cleansing your ears.
People use different things to clean their ears, including cotton swabs, toothpicks, toilet paper, and even their fingers. These techniques are not only inappropriate and occasionally unhygienic, and dangerous too. Therefore, knowing the right technique to clean the ears is highly important.
If you are unsure of how to clean your ears, check out this blog post to learn the safest way...
Why Wax is Made in Our Ears?
Let’s understand why our ears make wax. Earwax, also called cerumen, is a natural body substance that not only protects but also lubricates your ears. It also acts as a barrier to prevent dirt, dust, and other foreign objects from entering the ears. Therefore, earwax plays an important role in balancing the environment of the ears. Without earwax, our ears would be unpleasant, dry, and irritating. Earwax functions as a filter to prevent dust and other debris from penetrating deep into our ears. Additionally, because of its antibacterial qualities, our ears can clean themselves.
Earwax forms in the outer area of the ear and not in the deep part of the ear canal b. Each time you chew or move your jaw, old earwax moves out from the ear canal to the ear opening, where it dries and falls out.
Risk of Inserting Objects into Your Ears for Cleaning
One of the most common methods people use at home to clean ears is cotton swabs. The risks of using cotton swabs include:
- Ear infections
- Hearing loss
- Eardrum rupture or injury
- Blockage of eardrum due to deeper pushing of wax
- Getting a swab stuck in the ear
How to Clean Your Ears?
Seeing an ENT doctor, otolaryngologist, or other healthcare provider is the safest way to clean your ears since they can safely remove any excess earwax or debris using specialized tools.
These tools could consist of:
- A suction apparatus, a spoon-shaped instrument, and forceps.
- A physician can also assist in determining whether any further underlying medical conditions need to be addressed.
One of the following techniques can be used if someone still wants to clean their ears at home:
- With a damp cloth: A paper towel or cloth can be moistened with lukewarm water. They can use the towel to clean the outside of the ear after squeezing off any excess. Always remember that inserting something into the ear is never a good idea.
- Doctor-prescribed ear drops or mineral oil: Several ear drops are available online or over the counter, which can be used to soften and facilitate the removal of earwax accumulation. Solutions like glycerin, hydrogen peroxide, carbamide peroxide, baby oil, and mineral oils can be used.
- Irrigation: Visit a doctor for professional irrigation instead of using a DIY irrigation kit that uses either plain water or a water and saline solution mix because, at times, such DIY kit uses can lead to unwanted injury too. Ear drops could be a good idea before irrigation. To prevent adverse effects like vertigo, the water and ear drops should be warmed to body temperature before being applied. People should be careful to overheat the solution as this could cause burns.
How to Protect Your Ears
Cleaning your ears is only one aspect of ear care. Here are some more suggestions for ear protection:
- Minimize your exposure to loud sounds. In a loud, noisy environment, consider wearing protective headgear or earplugs to protect your ears.
- Keep the volume at a suitable level and take pauses from using headphones or earbuds. Don't turn up your car's music system on a loud volume.
- Pay attention after taking some medications, as due to side effects you may feel any changes in your hearing, balance, or ringing in your ears. If any such thing happens visit an otolaryngologist.
- Pat dry your ears after swimming to avoid an outer ear infection. Wipe your ears with a handkerchief, then tilt your head to get rid of any remaining water.
- Yawn and swallow frequently to relieve pressure in your ears while flying or when the aircraft lands.
Hence, we have learned so far that if you think you have too much earwax buildup, you can gently clean the outside of your ears. Just use a soft, clean washcloth. You also can try putting a few drops of baby oil, hydrogen peroxide, mineral oil, or glycerin in your ear to soften the wax. Always remember that having a doctor or another medical professional remove the excess wax is the safest and best way to clear a blockage. You can also consult an ENT specialist in case of ear infection or repeated ear blockages.
If you have any questions related to cleaning of ears, you can Ask an ENT Specialist at Ask a doctor, 24x7.
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Disclaimer: Information provided on this page is not intended to substitute for proper medical advice provided by your healthcare professional. This is only for informational purposes.
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