You’ve probably heard that you should NOT use cotton swabs to clean out your ears. (Inserting small objects into your ears is a risky, ill-advised idea.) But that raises the question: how SHOULD you clean out your ears, then? Dr. Natalie McKee, Au.D. shares the best, and safest, DIY methods to clean out your ears.
I’m Dr. Natalie McKee at Bloomington-Normal Audiology, and welcome to I Hear You, where the audiologists at BNA answer your hearing-related questions. Frank in Bloomington wants to know, “If I’m not supposed to use cotton swabs, how do I clean out my ears?” The problem with cotton swabs is that they can often do more harm than good. When you twist and push down into your canal, if there is debris in there, you’re compacting it further in, making the problem even harder for you, or the person that you’re going to ask to help you remove the wax. The first thing you need to know is whether you’ve had any damage to your eardrum or any problem with your eardrum in the past. You want to be careful about putting things in your canal if the eardrum is either compromised or not whole. So if your eardrum has no problems, you’re welcome to use over-the-counter methods that are softening agents. They’re marketed with names like DEE-brox or Debrox, people say it different ways, or Earwax MD. And this involves you putting a softener that has a combination of oil and usually hydrogen peroxide in it. Put several drops in the canal, leaving it in there to do its job and softening up that wax. Then you follow that up with an irrigation of either water or hydrogen peroxide. And that can be done in the shower, over the sink, but you’re usually using a bulb syringe to irrigate the canal. Some of the drawbacks of using water can be that it doesn’t dry out very quickly and people feel like they have it stuck in there. So switching to hydrogen peroxide sometimes works better. That bubbly quality it has also loosens things up a little bit better than water does, and it evaporates at a faster rate than water, so you aren’t left with that wet, plugged feeling a lot of the time like you can with water. If the OTC methods don’t work, then you’re probably going to have to see either your primary care physician, an audiologist, or an ear nose and throat doctor depending on your medical history. Because if there are other health conditions you have, like diabetes, or have had surgical procedures done on your ear, it may take a specialized, trained person to be able to clear that canal for you. There are a couple challenges along the way with doing it at home, so always defer to a professional if you’re not sure and they’d be happy to help you. Hope that helps! If you have more questions, let us know. I’m Dr. Natalie McKee at Bloomington-Normal Audiology, and we’re ‘hear’ for you.