Ear Care: How To Deal With An Earwax Blockage

Earwax is produced naturally in your ear to help keep out foreign objects that could cause blockages or infections, especially near the eardrum. Knowing how to properly deal with excessive earwax in your ears is crucial to ensuring the well-being of your hearing and to prevent debilitating ear injuries. In this article, you will learn how an earwax blockage can affect your hearing and ways to safely remove it so as to keep your ears healthy.

What is earwax blockage?

Earwax is an oily substance that is produced in the outer ear to help trap dust, small objects and bacteria that could enter the inner year and cause infections or injury. The ear has a self-cleaning mechanism where the wax is ejected through the ear canal while you move your jaw, such as during chewing.

Unfortunately, your ear can sometimes produce excessive wax that causes a blockage in the ear canal. This obstructs the free movement of sound from the outer ear to the eardrum, which can result in muffled sounds or even more severe hearing loss.

Other symptoms that you may have an earwax blockage include itching, pain or ringing in the ear, difficulty picking out sounds and a feeling of fullness in the ear. Luckily, such issues can be reversed by simply having the wax removed from the ear canal.

How to remove excessive earwax

If you produce a lot of earwax or have an ear canal that doesn't allow earwax to escape naturally, you may need to manually remove that excessive wax so as to prevent blockade issues or poor ear hygiene.

Contrary to popular belief, cotton swabs are unsafe for earwax removal. This is because they can push wax further into the ear canal, where it can get compressed near the eardrum. The use of any foreign objects to remove earwax can also cause serious injury to the inner year, perforating the eardrum or even scratching the ear canal.

To safely remove excess earwax, pour a few drops of baby oil or glycerin in the ear to soften the wax, making it naturally flow to the outer ear where you can then wipe it with a cloth. You should also schedule an appointment with your hearing doctor for an ear exam that would reveal the presence of impacted earwax deep inside your ear canal. Such accumulated wax that could cause hearing loss can be professionally removed using prescription eardrops or gentle suction. Contact a company, such as the Hearing Professionals for more information.