Don’t Remove Earwax
Recent studies found out that it’s best to leave earwax alone. It’s actually protective 
because it has lubricating and antibacterial properties and that is according to one ear specialist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.
The guidelines are the first comprehensive clinical recommendations meant to help health-care professionals identify patients with impacted wax and treat them properly. Panel members reviewed scientific studies and sought expert opinion to create the guidelines.
They conclude that if the ears are functioning well, then the presence of ear wax does not require anything. They added that using a swab can actually drive excess wax in further and it would complicate things because then medical attention is often needed to remove it.
Certain people need to pay more attention to their ear wax status. Those who wear a hearing aid, are much more likely to develop problems with ear wax. That’s because the hearing aid prevents the ear from doing its job which is to clean out excess ear wax naturally.
As people age, ear wax problems are more common, too, he said, with those over age 65 more likely to have problems than younger people.
Ear wax is beneficial and self-cleaning. Hearing aid wearers should get their ears cleaned once or twice a year by a health-care professional to avoid wax buildup, which can cause hearing aid feedback or even damage the device. When ear wax blocks 80 percent or more of the ear canal diameter, it can result in reversible hearing loss.
About 12 million people in the United States seek medical care each year for impacted ear wax, according to the guidelines. The panel advises the use of wax-dissolving agents such as water and saline to dislodge it by a professional. Irrigation, manual removal with special instruments or ear syringes are other options.
The guidelines advise against the use of cotton-tipped swabs, oral jet irrigators and ear candling (the use of cone-shaped candles that are lit to draw out the wax).
The new guidelines make sense, said Dr. Chester Griffiths, an ear specialist at Santa Monica–UCLA Medical Center & Orthopaedic Hospital, and an assistant clinical professor of surgery at the University of California, Los Angeles, David Geffen School of Medicine.
