Behind The Mixer

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“Can you hear out of this ear?” the nurse asked me.  “Yes,” I replied.  She proceeded to pull out the nastiest wax I’d ever seen.  “I THOUGHT I could hear,” came my next words.

Ear health isn’t a topic that will trend on Twitter any time soon but it’s important for sound engineers and musicians.

Usually, we are only told to avoid prolonged exposure to high sound pressure levels.  There’s much more we should be doing and it starts with knowing how our ears clean themselves.

What is earwax?

earwax in the ear canalCerumen, commonly called earwax, serves as a self-cleaning agent with protective, lubricating, and antibacterial properties.  Created by glands and released in the outer one-third of the ear canal, it traps small particles and prevents them from potentially damaging or infecting the eardrum. Some people have wetter wax while others have more of a dry wax.  Gross, right?

Our body creates earwax to protect the eardrum.  The amount of wax created and the type created varies from person to person.  Earwax is slowly transported from the ear canal to the ear opening by jaw motion (talking and chewing). Gum chewers must move wax at an amazing rate!  Once at the ear opening, it usually dries, flakes off, and falls out. Easy breezy, lemon squeezy.

Problems occur in three ways:

  1. The ears of a person with small or oddly shaped ear canals have a tough time transporting the earwax out of the canal.
  2. Attempts at improperly cleaning the ears (Q-Tip, napkin) force wax deeper into the ear canal.
  3. Use of earplugs or in-ear headphones pushes wax deeper into the ear canal.

All three scenarios lead to wax impactions.  And here’s where the real problems start. Earwax impaction can lead to:

  • Perforated eardrum
  • Middle-ear infection
  • External-ear infection (swimmer’s ear )
  • Permanent hearing loss

In-ear headphones, earplugs, and Q-Tips.

Any time we stuff something in our ear, it will push wax back into the ear canal.  The use of in-ear headphones and earplugs push that wax back into our ear.  For some people, this isn’t a problem because their ears produce little wax or do a great job of shedding it.  For some of us, it means unless we clean our ears when needed – likely at a frequent rate, we will end up visiting a doctor.

When to clean vs. see a doctor

An ear with a slight full feeling is a sign it’s time to clean out your ears.  Notice I said “slight.”  You know your body and when something doesn’t feel right.  If you have any of the below symptoms it’s likely an earwax impaction so skip the cleaning and go straight to the doctor. When in doubt, go to the doctor.

Signs of possible earwax impaction:

  • Decreased hearing
  • Dizziness
  • Ear pain
  • Plugged or fullness sensation
  • Ringing in the ear
  • Itching, odor, or drainage from the ear canal

How to SAFELY Clean Your Ears

Before going straight to the cleaning, be advised you should avoid it if you have diabetes, a perforated eardrum, a tube in the eardrum, or a weakened immune system.  In any of those cases, consult a doctor.

For general cleaning, wash the external ear with a cloth but do NOT insert anything into the ear canal.  NO Q-Tips!

Ear drop irrigation kit.

For earwax removal (blockages), place a few drops of mineral oil, baby oil, glycerin, or commercial drops in the ear.  Wait 15 to 30 minutes , or as directed by the commercial drops, and irrigate with warm water.  Using an ear syringe filled with warm water, place it outside of the ear canal and irrigate the ear.  DO NOT BLOCK THE EAR CANAL WITH THE SYRINGE!  THE WATER HAS TO HAVE ROOM TO EXIT!  Yes, all caps and exclamation points.

Commercial drops include those by Debrox and Murine, though many generic brands are also available.

Depending on the amount of wax, this process might need to be repeated twice a day for a few days.  If it’s that bad, consult a doctor and follow their instructions.

Curettes and other tools

There are other ear-cleaning tools available but I don’t recommend using them.  Tools, like curettes, in the hands of medical professionals are good.  But just because you can buy them in the store or online doesn’t mean you should.  Leave it to your doctor, nurse, or otolaryngologist (yeah, I had to use that word sooner or later).

What about ear candling?

Comparison between burned alone and burned in an ear. Photo by Surfo

Comparison between burned alone and burned in an ear. Photo by Surfo

Ear candling is a procedure using a hollow cone made of paraffin and beeswax.  The tapered end is placed in the ear and the other end is lit on fire.  The theory, as people are lead to believe, is the flame creates a vacuum that draws the wax out of the ear.

Ear candling does not work.  It has been debunked in clinical tests.  People who perform candling show it works by blowing out the fire, cutting open the cone and revealing the “vacuumed” wax.  By burning the cone by itself, the same results can be shown.  The risk of damage to the ear is very high via hot wax dripping into the ear canal.  For further information, look here.

The Take Away

Earwax is a normal product of the human body, used for protecting the eardrums, and is normally discharged from the ear.  The use of in-ear headphones can contribute to pushing wax back into the ear canal.  The best thing you can do to promote healthy ears is to give them a good and safe cleaning when they need it.  Oh, and don’t listen to loud music all day long.

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Comments

  1. Ear health is very important because you don’t know what you are missing until you can’t hear anymore. My ears get tons of wax build up so I have to make sure to regularly clean them out in order to avoid any damage. One thing I have noticed is that my ears can be full of wax and I don’t notice because I still hear fine and feel fine so I just make a habit of cleaning them regularly.

    Reply

  2. I didn’t realize how important ear health is. It’s probably not very fun to go without hearing. If you are going to clean your ears you should do it safely. I really like that you have a section on how to do that, because I don’t think very many people know how.

    Reply

  3. Anything you do that is done improperly can be bad for you. At present–with my doctor’s (general practioner’s) permission–I’m spending a lot of time practicing drumming. I use Sibelius and NoteWorthy Composer to play files I’ve created and play along with them. I regularly have Shure SE215s plugged far into my ears. On top of those, when I have the mufflers off the drum heads, I also have a pair of 3M Peltor Optime 105 hearing-protectors (“ear-muffs”) on. AND, I can still hit my snare hard enough that I know I’m probably inflicting short-term hearing damage.

    Short-term hearing damage will–usually, if one isn’t too old, hasn’t incurred it too much, etc.–heal. However, short-term hearing damage on top of short-term hearing damage on top of short-term hearing damage (repeated exposure to high levels of sound) will eventually result in permanent hearing damage, regardless of age, health, etc. So, since my drum-kit is set up in a laundry room with very hard-, acoustically-reflective-walls, and since I love the feel of real drum heads (I practice 3-4 times more, daily, than I did with my table-top electronic drums), practicing without putting in, and on, hearing protection simply isn’t practical (I want to be able to hear when I get older, without hearing-aids, for as long as possible.

    So, I take several actions to protect my ears. (1) I (not regularly enough lately) get into the bathtub (to take a normal, daily bath) and clean my ears out with a bulb that is made to be safe (when properly used–always read and follow instructions) for babies. (2) When needed, I use some over-the-counter (Debrox? if memory servers) ear-wax removal fluid and clean my ears out even more. (3) When I notice problems (I.e. a spot of blood near the pinna, just slightly in the canal, I stop doing whatever it is that I have been doing and fix what ever caused the problem, too much wax, triple-flanged sleeves worn out (i.e., rubbing the canal and abrading it, causing a tiny bit of bleeding). When I finish writing this, I will go to sleep. Rather than put in my E.A.R. yellow-foam ear-plugs, with the wax ear-plugs over the top of them (one has to be careful not to push the foam in too far placing the wax over (not in) the outer part of the canal)–and occasionally the Optime 105s over the top of both of those–I’m a light sleeper when forced to attempt to conform to being a day-person–I will forego the yellow foam plugs and just carefully put wax plugs on–not in–the outside of the canals and then put on my Optime 105s. (I’ve been using ear-plugs or hearing-protectors to sleep for 37-38 years. I have a lot of experience–including making mistakes like pushing foam plugs too far in, not cleaning my ears out often enough, etc.–which on one occasion resulted in a former GP’s ordering an MA to clean my ears out with a WaterPic, and charging me $45 for the “privilege”–that I am fairly adept at maintain my ear-health. However, . . .

    . . . my ex-wife would get an ear-infection if she stuck a QueTip barely inside her ear-canal. She had asthma and moderate- to severe-allergies (as I now have, also–I call it “the ex’s revenge”). She had other conditions, probably genetic, that simply made her ears different than mine. Her ears simply could not tolerate any having any foreign-objects inside, else, she’d produce extremely large amounts of wax (ugh, which she occasionally thought I really needed to see). If she attempted to wear ear-plugs as deep, as long, and as often as I do, she’d have died many time over as the ear-infection would have spread to the inner-ear from the middle-ear, and then to her brain and killed her.

    The moral of the story has several parts:
    (1) “know thyself”, know how your ears respond to plugs, in-canal “buds”, or “IEMs” (which is really the acronym for the entire system, not just the in-ear speakers), whether you can or cannot safely use them, how to safely use them, how to maintain hygiene and (2) DOING IT!! MAINTAINING EAR_HYGIENE!! (with improvements in my diet, in my sinus- and other areas of -health, etc., I no longer absolutely have to flush my ears in the tub daily. I can go 1-2 days without. But, if I’m using my SE215s daily, I can’t go 3 days without getting in the tub, getting out the syringe-bulb (that’s what it’s called; it has nothing to do with needles), and cleaning out my ears. The last year, I haven’t had to use the Debrox but once or twice. (3) Always use proper equipment, and (4) don’t ever trust anyone online to be telling you what your general-practitioner, audiologist, or other medical doctor (ENTs, for one) should be telling you!!

    Peace out!!

    l8r dudes and dudettes

    :D

    Reply

    • Hey, Chris. Ya really oughtta change this “thing” so it doesn’t delete white-space. My “work” is much prettier (and easier to read, pedantic-, wordy-, prematurely-old fool that I am) with my paragraph structure.

      ;)

      John

      Reply

    • I’m saying that the use of anything that is pushed into the outer ear can potentially push wax back into the ear. With ear plugs, it’s hard to say because it’s how you use them. For example, some are made to squeeze and then push into the ear and there it expands. However, if you look at in-ear monitors, they are usually some form of rubber so when you put them in, that rubber pushes that wax back into the ear. That being said, each person’s ears produce wax at a different rate. Some people don’t have a problem with them while others do. I’d say if you are a regular user of earplugs then the next time you visit the doctor, have them take a look at your ears. You might be ok or they might say, “how can you even hear.”

      Reply

  5. I agree with everything in this article. As an audiologist I frequently see ear wax that has been pushed against the eardrum by cotton swabs, earplugs, etc.. I have also seen plenty of eardrum perforations by pencils, bobby pins, paper clips. Please, keep those ears safe! Thank you for writing this!

    Reply

  6. Great info, thanks Chris!
    Of course, I’m diabetic so I guess it’s to the doctor I’ll go when/if I have ear issues…

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  7. Also, another problem that may occur–when using earbuds, and to a lesser degree headphones–is the spread of communicable diseases. The church where I work–at the insistence of an elderly “church elder”–doesn’t take proper care of earbuds (they should be thrown in the trash and individual Listen Tech’ system users should bring their own buds or headphones). Thus, they run the risk of passing ear-born, or ear-wax-born diseases.

    DON’T SHARE headphones (the ones without small, replaceable foam filters) without cleaning them first (think, judiciously applied waterless hand-cleaner). DON’T SHARE headphones or earbuds with foam filters without first changing the filters. While paper “sanitary” covers do exist for earbuds, DO GIVE EACH USER A $5 department-store set of ear phones or earbuds!

    Peace, out.

    John E. Lawton

    Reply