Safe Professional Earwax Removal
Muffled sounds, along with feelings of fullness, pressure, or aching in your ears, are all common indicators that your ears might be plugged up with impacted earwax. Though the buildup of earwax is irritating, it is easy to treat.
Earwax (or cerumen) is a naturally produced substance in your ears that is designed to remove dirt, debris, fungi, and bacteria from the ear canal in order to guard your middle and inner ear against infection.
However, whenever earwax builds up and becomes impacted, making it difficult to hear and causing pain, pressure, or ringing in your ears, it’s time to get some help.
Our professionals at Clarity Hearing helped provide relief to hundreds of local patients struggling with the challenges of built-up and impacted earwax.
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How Does Earwax Clean Your Ears?
The sticky, oily, and waxy substance known as cerumen is produced by special glands in the ear canal.
It attracts any dirt, debris, dead skin cells, bugs, fungi, bacteria, and whatever else might be in your ear canal, forming it into a clump.
Vibrations in your ear canal while you talk or chew move the wax and unwanted debris toward the outer ear canal, similar to sweeping dirt down your hallway floor. Once it comes to the opening, it falls out naturally without you even noticing, or you might see it in the mirror and clear it away.
Earwax has a natural pH that helps prevent dryness and irritation, which can become upset due to impacted earwax or a lack of earwax. Both of these issues tend to occur when you try to remove earwax by yourself.
Dealing with the buildup of earwax, called “ceruminosis,” is something that is easy for a hearing care provider to deal with because they have the proper formulas, instruments, and techniques to safely remove impacted earwax and provide relief.
Earwax Removal is Quick, Easy, and Painless
Click to watch Dr. Scott Marquardt and Dr. Katie Miller demonstrate the process of earwax removal, with amazing results!
Four Reasons You Should Leave Earwax Removal To A Professional
Though it’s almost irresistible and widely popular, inserting cotton-tipped swabs or any other elongated object (the thought of what that might be makes your audiologist shudder) into your ears is never a good idea. Just about any healthcare professional you talk to will agree, giving four main reasons why you should leave earwax removal to a professional instead of doing it yourself.
1. Earwax Removal Is Usually Unnecessary
The ear canal is naturally self-cleaning, requiring no routine maintenance thanks to its natural built-in process. Earwax is produced within the ear canal and naturally migrates from deeper inside to outside with only a few exceptions, which includes individuals who produce more than the average amount of earwax, wear hearing aids, or use earplugs to block the opening of the ear.
2. It Could Cause Permanent Damage To Your Ears
Trying to remove earwax by inserting a cotton-tipped swab (or anything else) into the ear can permanently damage the ear canal or eardrum. In addition, you might press clumps of earwax against the eardrum while you’re digging, which can lead to an ear infection.
3. It Could Make Your Problem Worse
Because you can’t see what you’re doing, attempting to remove earwax yourself typically makes your earwax buildup problem worse. Rather than moving it out of your ear canal, cotton-tipped swabs push clusters of wax together into a larger cluster, which plugs your ear and causes pain, pressure, and muffled sound
4. The Presence Of Earwax Is Not A Sign Of Poor Hygiene
Earwax, or cerumen, provides natural moisture to prevent the skin in the ear canal from becoming too dry. The quantity and makeup of earwax varies with ethnicity, age, environment, and even diet. Earwax is not a reflection of uncleanliness; in fact, it’s a sign of normal, healthy ears.
How Does Clarity Hearing Do Earwax Removal?
If you’ve never had an audiologist clean your ears, you probably have questions and concerns about how it’s done. To address your questions and concerns, here is exactly what you can expect when you visit one of our hearing care professionals for an earwax removal appointment.
#1 – We Get To Know You
We’re not sure if we’re nosey or just enjoy the opportunity to get to know our patients, but we start off all of our consultations with a conversation about you. In addition to helping you relax and feel at home, we typically learn a lot about your occupation, lifestyle, medical history, and hearing history in the course of our initial conversations, providing us answers about your earwax buildup concerns as well as other possible hearing care challenges.
#2 – Ear Inspection
We don’t just stick a cotton swab in your ear and start digging. Before removing your earwax, your audiologist will take a deeper look inside your ear canal using our expert equipment to find out what we’re up against, allowing us to plan and target the specific issue for safe and effective removal.
#3 – Unblocking Your Ears
Usually, some warm water injected into your ear with a syringe is enough to loosen up the impacted wax and flush it out of your ear. Sometimes, it’s a bit stubborn or hard to reach, which is when we reach for a curette. A curette is shaped like a stylus and has a loop at the end, which is used to grab onto stubborn earwax and pull it out.
Keep in mind that the reason your audiologist can do this (and you shouldn’t!) is that your audiologist can see better, is trained to use specific techniques, and has more experience.
#4 – Heavenly Relief
Schedule An Earwax Removal Appointment Today!
Trying to remove your own earwax at home is not only dangerous but is more likely to make things worse.
Rather than exacerbating your earwax problems, let one of our earwax removal specialists at Clarity Hearing provide the safe, effective, and lasting relief your ears deserve.
If you, or a loved one, are struggling with earwax or experiencing the symptoms of impacted earwax, don’t hesitate to get the professional help you need by submitting the adjacent form to set up an earwax removal appointment.
