What is the correct and safest way to clean your ears?

Ear cleaning can be done in many ways.

The first thing to keep in mind is that wax is produced by glands in the ear canal.

This wax acts like a broom that moves outward and along the way it collects the peeling skin and microscopic particles from the environment that enter the interior.

The movement of the wax outward is facilitated by the movements of the jaw when speaking and chewing.

But the important thing is that you know that this action of the wax serves as protection for our ears.

So, having wax is not bad, it is something natural.

There are people who produce much more wax than others, and that has nothing to do with hygiene, it is intrinsic to the person.

In the same way, there are people whose nature does not lead them to produce plugs and others for whom the opposite happens.

This depends on each person's skin.

The problem can occur if there is a lot of wax or if, with the intention of cleaning it, what we do is introduce it deeper and deeper into the ear.

In both situations a wax plug may appear.

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That is why it is important to know how to clean your ears.

Different things can be used: the tip of a towel, a baby wipe, a cotton swab, etc. but always without inserting it into the external auditory canal.

No product is bad if used properly.

In otorhinolaryngology, we do not recommend the use of swabs, syringes with pressurized water or seawater sprays because their misuse causes the wax to be impacted more deeply, they can cause wounds in the skin of the canal and even in the tympanic membrane and also They can promote external ear infections.

We have to insist that hygiene begins with cleaning the folds of the pinna (ear) and that you only have to clean the meatus or entrance to the external auditory canal without introducing anything inside.

As I told you, it is the people who generate the most wax who may have the most problems with plugs and who should be most careful when cleaning their ears.

For these people there are different products that help hygiene, but you have to know some details about them.

The swabs themselves are not dangerous, only if they insert what is naturally trying to come out.

We accumulate and in the end we can generate an impacted plug in the canal that can cause problems with pain, a sensation of pressure and even decreased hearing.

There are some spray products or the well-known syringe with water whose idea is to make a flow of liquid inside the ear and thus drag the plug out.

If we are not skilled or do it incorrectly, we can also insert the cap further and generate the same problems as with the cotton swabs.

In addition, retained water can promote infections and even more danger in patients who have a perforated tympanic membrane.

That is why we advise against the use of these remedies if you are not a health professional.

The most useful ones to use at home are drops that act as wax solvents, oils that degrade the wax little by little and prevent plugs from forming.

These oils must be used periodically depending on the rate of plug formation that each person has.

In summary, it is important to insist that nothing should be inserted into the ear canal.

One of the most frequent problems when removing ear wax plugs in health centers is due to the misuse of the swabs, which ends up causing the wax to accumulate inside the ear and complicates its removal.

Elisa Gil-Carcedo

is an otorhinolaryngologist at the Río Hortega University Hospital in Valladolid and an associate professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Valladolid.

Coordination and writing:

Victoria Toro

.

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