What’s the Deal with Earwax?

Clean ears are important for good hearing. If you wear a hearing aid, you may clean your ears regularly to avoid excess wax blocking your device’s tubes. If you have normal hearing, you might be aware a buildup of wax can plug your ear canal to muffle your hearing, just like wearing earplugs.

Indeed, if your hearing is muffled, it’s always wise to check in with your doctor or an audiologist, to have the external canal examined. It could be the problem is as simple as a buildup of wax, in which case they can professionally clean your ear canal and safely get rid of the excess.

Whatever your motivation, it’s important you clean your ears correctly, or you could accidentally do more harm than good. Indeed, it’s helpful to understand that a little earwax is a good thing as it has protective properties that keep the ear canal healthy. The first thing to do is to decide if you even need to clean your ears wax because over-cleaning the ear canal can cause problems. If in doubt, consult your audiologist.

Earwax is a bit like the waterproof coating on a wax jacket or coat. The earwax is there to provide a thin protective layer over the skin that lines the ear canal. It helps keep the skin in good condition and acts as a barrier against water (such as when you go swimming) or against drying out in warm conditions.

More than that, the sticky nature of earwax means that it traps dust in the air and keeps it from traveling deep into the ear canal where it could scratch of damage the eardrum. Those same sticky properties also protect the ear from bacteria and other sources of infection.

Indeed, earwax is more sophisticated than merely providing a sticky layer, as the ear’s anatomy also moves the wax up and out of the ear. Much like being on a slow moving conveyor belt, the wax is produced in the outer third of the ear canal and is wafted towards the exterior by the movement of tiny hairs in the skin.

This clever ‘wax elevator’ gets rid of not only unwanted dust and debris, but also shed skin cells. Thus, an ear that produces a normal amount of wax (rather than an excessive amount) is actually self-cleaning.

Earwax also conditions the skin and provides a barrier against allergens that might become trapped in the ear and trigger an allergic reaction. All of which means that overenthusiastic or inappropriate cleaning of the ears should be avoided. A person concerned about how often to clean their ears should speak with their hearing care professionals who can advise them on an individual basis, taking into account how much wax their ear produces.

The audiologist can also advise you on the correct way to keep your ear canal clean and healthy (without the use of cotton tips)!