5 important things that you should know about ear wax.
What is ear wax :
Contrary to what most people believe, ear wax is not the dirt or something which you should be embarrassed about. Wax is just a secretion for gland located inside ear canal known as cerumenous gland. The ceruminous glands in the skin of the human external auditory canal are modified apocrine glands, which, together with sebaceous glands, produce the cerumen, the ear wax. Cerumen plays an important role in the protection of the ear canal against physical damage and microbial invasion. It also lubricates the ear canal.
There are actually two kinds of earwax
Wet and Dry. Wet ear wax is more common among Caucasian and African people and is typically dark yellow and sticky. For those with East Asian or Native American ancestry, ear wax is typically light in color, dry and flaky. The cells inside the ear canal are unique in the human body – they migrate., and the direction is outwards. If this didn’t happen the ear canal would soon fill up with dead cells created by the natural process of skin shedding. This movement also propels the wax and trapped material towards the outside. This movement is also aided by movements of the jaw through eating and talking.
So, the take away message here is that “you don’t need to clean your ears” and it cleans itself. However, sometimes this natural cleansing mechanism stops functioning and this can lead to accumulation of wax.
Others reasons for wax accumulation are:
Genetic: where some have tendency to produce more wax than the others.
Self-cleaning: where one used cotton buds and this pushes the wax deeper and deeper and results in accumulation.
Constant use of ear plugs is also known to result in wax accumulation.
Elderly people are more prone to have wax impaction
Narrow ear canal which is anatomical abnormalits where the ear opening is little narrow than normal hiders the natural cleaning process.
Symptoms of wax impaction :
Sudden complete or partial hearing loss especially after a having a shower
Ear blockage.
Ear pain
Ringing in ear.
So, what do we do when I experience the symptoms of wax accumulation?
The most important thing to prevent the wax accumulation is to stop using ear buds. Other natural remedies include:
Olive Oils, mustard oil
Baby oil.
Glycerin
Hydrogen peroxide.
Warm water and many more.
Using ear buds not only leads to wax impaction but can result in infection and can cause the trauma to your ear drum. But once the symptoms of wax impaction develop , you are left with no other option then to visit a doctor to get it examined and removed.
Wax removal at clinic:
Wax removal is a painless process and hardly takes few minutes.
Common methods include:
Syringing irrigation.
Removal using a probe
Suction removal.
Syringing, uses a warm waters to flush the wax out. Its painless but can lead to trauma to ear drum in not done carefully. Using a probe is a little painful and especially difficult in children who become very uncooperative upon seeing the pointer probe. Suction is the easiest and the most commonly used method, provided the wax is soft. This is also preferred in children as there is little apprehension and is little more.
Hope this information was useful in clearing some doubts. For any queries or questions do get it touch.
