Ear wax is good for us: it serves a purpose as it keeps your ears healthy, but too much wax can be a problem. Especially if you’re a hearing aid user.
From day to day your ear wax fights off bacteria and fungal infections, it’s sticky so it grabs onto any object that’s not meant to be in our ears like hair from a haircut, dust, and on the very rarest of occasions insects. Now I’ve seen a lot of ears in my time and touch wood, I haven’t seen an insect in an ear…… phew! but I’ve seen a lot of blocked ears, some due to wax, some due to people putting things in their ears.
I’ve also seen attempts of people getting ear wax removal wrong, resulting in pain, infections, bleeding, perforations or holes in eardrums, minor and major trauma to ear canal walls, and to top that list I’ve seen many cotton buds stuck in people’s ears. Essentially, wax removal has its risks. We can’t remove all of them, but as a clinical audiologist fully trained in micro-suction, the risks are fewer than trying yourself.
Remember, apart from hearing aids, don’t put anything smaller than your elbow into your ears, unless it’s attached to a professional who can see where they’re poking.
