How often do you think about cleaning your ears? You might wash your face or brush your teeth every day but cleaning your ears may not be as high of a priority.
If you do decide to clean your ears, it’s important that you’re doing it the right way so that you’re not damaging the parts of your ear that are essential for helping you hear. Learn more about when to clean your ears, the best methods for cleaning your ears and what can go wrong when you use the wrong tools.
Unlike most parts of the body, your ears don’t have to be cleaned too often. In fact, you don’t have to worry about maintaining your ears much at all since they are self-cleaning. The ear wax that is produced in your ears makes its way out on its own with time. While having ear wax in your ears might sometimes be perceived as unsanitary, it’s actually a sign that your ears are perfectly healthy. Ear wax naturally moisturizes your ears, traps dust and dirt, and prevents harmful bacteria from reaching the inside of your ear.
While most people shouldn’t have to worry about cleaning their ears, some people’s ears produce more than the normal amount of ear wax or have earwax that is too hard. Having too much ear wax can also affect your hearing by blocking the ear canal and preventing sound waves from coming through. In this case, getting your ears cleaned is the best way to improve your hearing.
If you suspect that you have an excessive amount of ear wax in your ears, you can get your ears checked by a hearing care professional. Hearing care professionals such as ENT doctors and audiologists can examine your ears to see if ear wax blockage is causing your hearing loss. Book an appointment wiht a hearing care specialist at your local Miracle-Ear Hearing Center to get your ears checked today.
Once you have determined that you have too much ear wax, the best way to get your ears cleaned is by having your health care provider do it for you. A trained medical specialist will know the proper way to clean your ears and removing the wax on your own can potentially harm your hearing. Your health care provider may either flush out the wax or use a small, curved tool to remove the wax from your ears. Some over-the-counter ear cleaning remedies like ear drops are available for purchase, but they should only be used at the recommendation of your health care provider.
It can be hard to resist the urge to remove the wax from your ears, but you shouldn’t use any available object to clean your ears. Using the wrong tools to clean your ears can damage your middle and inner ear and cause hearing loss. Some tools include:
