Updated Guidelines Provide Do’s and Don’ts for Healthy Ear Care
The American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) recently published updated guidelines on best practices for dealing with earwax, the first in almost a decade. They stressed that the wax is as beneficial as nose mucus or eyelashes and should be left alone as much as possible.
While it might seem like a good idea to try and get rid of earwax, the truth is earwax traps dirt, dust, and other airborne particles that might get into our ears. Eventually the wax is slowly pushed outward by new skin growth and jaw movement and washed away with normal bathing. That means there’s no reason to get rid of earwax with cotton swabs, your finger, or any other tool.
You might “push the wax in further, and there also is the potential for damage to the ear drum,” says Dr. Seth Schwartz, who helped draft the new guidelines. “You might also scratch the ear canal, which “can lead to pain and infection,” he says. “Wiping away any excess wax when it comes to the outside of the ear is enough to keep it clean.”
According to Dr. Schwartz, “This update is significant because it not only provides best practices for clinicians in managing cerumen [or earwax] impaction, it is a strong reminder to patients that ear health starts with them, and there are many things they should do as well as many things that they should stop doing immediately to prevent damage to their ears.”
What Should and Shouldn’t You Do About Earwax?
The updated guidelines also offer important patient information on the “dos and don’ts” of managing earwax and healthy ear care. These include:
- DON’T over clean your ears. Excessive cleaning may irritate the ear canal, cause infection, and even increase the changes of earwax impaction.
- DON’T put anything smaller than your elbow in your ear. Cotton swabs, hair pins, toothpicks…these can all injure your ear and may cause a laceration (cut) in the ear canal, a perforation (hole) in the eardrum, and/or dislocation of the hearing bones, leading to hearing loss, dizziness, ringing, and other symptoms of ear injury.
- DON’T use ear candles. There is no evidence that they remove impacted earwax, and candling can cause serious damage to the ear canal and eardrum.
- DO seek medical evaluation if you have symptoms of hearing loss, ear fullness, and ear pain if you are not certain that they are from earwax.
- DO ask your provider about ways that you can treat your earwax impaction at home. You may have certain medical or ear conditions that may make some options unsafe.
- DO seek medical attention with ear pain, drainage, or bleeding. These are not symptoms of earwax impaction and need further evaluation.
If you do experience any of these symptoms, please feel free to contact us today for an appointment.