ear wax

[Kookaburra]

I'm still a dentist, though not a practicing one.

Wow, no wonder you know so much about the teeth..

[Oscar]

At the moment I'm a classical musician.

Wow, no wonder you know so much about the teeth..

[panacea]

@Mr. PC

Sorry for the late reply - a bulb syringe does indeed have to be used with great care - don't go too deep, better safe than sorry so I wouldn't go very deep at all. The reason to use a syringe is because anything that doesn't suck the wax out directly will just move it around and possibly lodge it deeper, as far as I know. Just be very very careful, sucking at an angle on the sides. Remember the goal isn't to get all the wax out - it's there to protect you, just to get the impacted wax loosened (that's where the warm (not hot) olive oil comes in) then the bulb is just to get the uncomfortableness lessened and some of the wax out.

Water is definitely a bad idea. I mean you can wash the outside crevices and such, but don't intentionally flush water down your ear. Just imagine if some of the wax didn't get out (this is guaranteed to happen), and then the softened wax hardened back over some tiny amount of water deep in your ear. You then risk an ear infection and some are extremely difficult to cure. So there's no point risking something like that just to cure a lesser ailment.

***Perssonally***: If I had this problem, I would skip the suction completely, and just leave the warm oil (you only need 3-5 drops!) in my ear and wait for a few minutes for it to do it's work on the outer layer of deep wax, then tilt my head for gravitational pull over a sink and collect the oil/wax that flows out with some kind of cloth/q-tips (NOT prodding into the ear hole, just the surface). Then I would just repeat this a few times until the uncomfortableness was gone. The key thing to remember here though is that ear wax is healthy, the goal is never to remove all of it at once.

[summerwave]

I do not know how to use the bulb to extract wax either, absent using water in it to expel into the ear (and flush out hard wax)...

Is there a good way?

Instead of the bulb, I use a small hard plastic syringe with a broad plastic end; it is for children's ears but I bought it to use when I realized water would become trapped in the bulb, making it not really reusable (as you can never really clean inside it after just one use)....

The point is too large to stick in far (which is fine), and since the plunger simply slides in like a sleeve and the tip can be unscrewed, I can take it apart (3 parts total) and thoroughly clean it, which I can't do with a bulb...

Still, I have been using it with warmed distllled water, and have wondered about not using water at all, as I sometimes get ear infections...most recently I have followed the treatment with glycerine/vinegar/alcohol drops that swimmers use after being in the pool to "dry out" the ear (you can make it at home; it is also available to buy premixed).

It is all getting rather complex. So--

Can you say more about using the bulb (no water) to "suck out" wax (technique?)?

How do you clean it?

[Oh goodness; I see you just posted as I was writing this....]

[summerwave]

So after reading the entire thread again, my 2 basic questions are:

1. Olive oil or mineral oil?

2. What does one do if one's ear wax treatments are working well with the above, and one regularly (or just occasionally) gets water trapped in the ear? (as after regular poolswimming or showering)--- use the drying drops with alcohol?

I seem to have problems after poolswimming so much that I just started dropping a few drops of mineral oil in each ear before going into the water...

This is the "pre"-swim treatment that is supposed to go hand-in-hand with the post-swim alcohol drops (but which people using the drops often neglect to do). My mother administered both the oil drops and homemade alcohol solution to all of us during years of pool practice, and it always worked (when we were much younger). I am inclined to hear more about other ideas to help when one is frequently in a pool or scuba-dives frequently, wearing vented earplugs (these let in some water, but control the amount and let it warm next to the body, so there is not a constant influx of icy water). In the experience of friends, mineral oil drops interfere with the seating of these vented plugs in the ears (fall out easily before one can get one's hood on).

I swim a lot (not a musician like the first poster) so I am very, very careful with ears/sinuses as well....

[panacea]

I'm not an expert on the subject, but I do know olive oil is best, and that you shouldn't be cleaning out ear wax routinely.. only when it's causing a problem like hurting you. Otherwise it just creates more problems than it's worth.

EDIT: definitly clean the outside part of the ear from wax lol if you have a husband/wife/girlfriend/boyfriend. Just not deep-cleaning.

[Mr. PC]

OK, I'm going to try your method of the olive oil and than tilting my head over the sink.

The strangest part about my ear being plugged is that it only happens in my left ear when I sleep on my left side, which makes me scared this method might not work, but I'll try it anyway since it's safest.

How do you warm your oil up? I'm afraid of over doing it. Is there a good way to check for warmth? Maybe dropping it on my wrist first like people do with baby bottles?

Also Oscar, what instrument do you play? and what composers do you like?

[Oscar]

I play the violin (modern and baroque). I like many composers, and for me there is a difference between playing and listening. But I would say my interest mainly lies in the period from Bach to Richard Strauss, so roughly 1700 - 1920. Late baroque, classical and romantic if you will.

[Mr. PC]

So I put OO in my ear, but my mom wasn't familiar with the suction technique and I got pressured into using water. The water didn't work anyway, so than we tried the ear candle. A ton of wax went into the ear candle, but also it heated my ears up enough that the cu-tip could get it out.

There was quite a bit of wax in the candle afterward, and it looked like ear wax, not candle wax. My mom said she once tried burning a candle by itself to see if it was just candle wax, and she said there wasn't any. My ears feel much better but I'm a little concerned about any water that might be in them.

[summerwave]

Can you describe ear candling for me (how it is used; what it does)?

[Oscar]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXohQHvRRIs&feature=fvw

These are also the candles I've used. Apparently there are different kinds (more tapered and such) as well, but I don't know if they work.

[Mr. PC]

I did the experiment myself yesterday, burning a candle without any ear, and smoke came out of the bottom, depositing wax inside the glass I was burning it in. After we opened it, there was wax inside the candle that looked like the ear wax by brother and sister had always gotten when their ears were candled. But when my mom candled my ear the other day, there was *much* more wax in the candle, and my ear felt significantly better afterward.
I don't know how that could possibly work because if it's blowing smoke / wax into the ear, it can't be creating a vacuum at the same time, right?

Either way I'm not gonna do it again, I really don't like the idea of depositing wax into my ear, but I'm 99% sure it did remove the wax from my ear that time I did it. I was literally unable to hear before the candling and I could hear after. Although maybe it warmed the wax up enough to move it around so that it wasn't blocking the canal anymore, but that would explain the massive amount of wax that was in that single candle.

[Oscar]

I'm not sure if it's logical or not for smoke coming out, but it could be a normal phenomenon, like how a chimney works.
Since the ear is a 'dead end', I can imagine that the smoke goes back up, creating some suction.

[RRM]

I copied these posts from this thread: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=2197&start=15

Oh, and as far as effects are concerned;
Decades ago, before this diet, my ear wax production made it necessary to clean my ears with Q-tips
on a almost daily basis.
On the low protein Wai diet, this production had decreased to such an extend that there was hardly any ear wax at all.
Even cleaning my ears just once a month, the Q-tips had virtually always remained clean while using them.
Now that my protein intake has increased drastically, so has my ear wax production, and im back at a daily cleaning regime.
Remarkable, isnt it?

Just a heads-up, RRM. Q-tips are designed to clean the perimeter or auricle of the ear. Cleaning the delicate tissues of the ear canal with Q-tips can cause damage which can lead to infection. Any otolaryngologist will tell you that nothing smaller than your elbow belongs in the ear canal.

last I heard, ear wax is a protective mechanism to push 'bad' stuff out? why would decreasing it to 0 be good?

If more ear wax = more bad stuff, and more bad stuff = not good, then more ear wax = not good.

I doubt its as simple as more ear wax being good or bad.
Ear wax is part of 'the sebum family', and it is known that high protein intakes
(via testosterone) stimulate sebum production.
In as much as sebum is not bad, ear wax is not bad; it has a function,
and its increased production not at all has to be caused by an increased need for its function.

[panacea]

So do you think it's because of excess nutrients that our body shows these problems (water retention, excess ear wax, bad body odor, oily skin, acne, soily feces, foul urine, bad breath, etc) or because of toxins?

I used to always think it was 'toxins' in foods but perhaps it's just normal nutrients in way too much excess... I mean, do you think our body is better at handling the minute toxins in foods than expelling the huge amounts of excess (otherwise good for us) nutrients?

You've talked before about toxins like HCA's from cooking but wouldn't just the wrong foods in the first place (like even raw milk) cause just as bad if not worse symptoms because too much of a good nutrient may be worse than heat-altered foods?