We often get asked by patients in our hearing clinic about how to clean their ears at home: questions like “How often should I clean my ears?” and “Can I use olive oil to remove earwax?” are common conversation topics with us!
Cleaning your ears at home is possible, but many methods touted on the market aren’t the safest for your inner ear or ear canal health. Ear candling and cotton swabs are some popular methods, but these can cause serious damage and push earwax deeper into your ear. Cotton swabs are very popular for ear cleaning, but they aren’t safe and can cause ear infection or further impaction.
If you’re concerned about your ear health and want to know how to remove earwax at home, you’re in the right place.
How Do I Remove Earwax at Home?
While earwax removal is often unnecessary – earwax typically drops out on its own in the shower or through chewing and talking, which move the wax along your ear canal – for some, excess earwax can pose a serious issue. Without removing earwax impactions and blockages, your hearing will suffer.
When it comes to removing earwax, or cerumen, at home, the safest method to remove small amounts of earwax is with specialized earwax softening drops. The best earwax removal drops are made of gentle formulas, like saline solutions or mineral oils.
You can get these eardrops from most drugstores, and they’ll do a good job of cleaning your ears and removing earwax by softening the wax and allowing it to drop out of your outer ear.
Simply tilt your head to the side, so that the affected ear is facing up to the ceiling, and drop the eardrops into your ear with the rubber bulb syringe. Gently tug your earlobe in different directions to allow the drops to more deeply penetrate your middle and inner ear, catching on the earwax inside.
Allow the formula to work its magic for a few minutes, then tilt your head in the opposite direction to allow the softened earwax to drop from your ear with the leftover solution. Repeat the process for your opposite ear if need be.
Another method to clean your ears is with a warm, damp rag, gently wiped across your earlobe and outer ear. Do not insert the rag into your ear, as this could cause further impaction of the earwax.
If you have tried both methods and have not felt relief, or the earwax impaction has caused a sudden hearing loss, then it’s time to visit an earwax removal specialist to get the earwax professionally removed.
Will Earwax Removal Improve My Hearing?
If your hearing loss challenge is caused by earwax impaction, removing the impaction will bring near instant relief and clearer hearing once more. However, if you find that after removing the earwax you’re still struggling with hearing loss, your hearing care expert will recommend a hearing test to gauge the range your hearing is currently able to handle.
For earwax removal by a professional, you can rely on us to clean your ears painlessly and quickly with our state-of-the-art earwax removal methods and tools. For severe impactions, we can remove them with ease, and you can say goodbye to the buildup!
Questions about earwax removal and whether to visit a professional or not? Please feel free to request a callback and we’ll contact you as soon as we can.
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