Pour oil in your ear to clear out wax

GETTING BUNGED-UP

ALL mammals have cerumen- or wax — in their ears, which helps protect against bacteria, fungi, insects and water.

Produced by sebaceous glands and sweat glands in the outer portion of the ear canal, cerumen also picks up dead skin flakes, which move out along the ear canal.

Ear wax is natural and ideally should be left to work itself out of the ear, says Dr Piers Dawes, a lecturer in audiology at the University of Manchester: 'Using cotton buds to try to extract the wax is a bad idea which can actually com pact it against the ear drum, making problem worse and potentially leading to infection.'

Some people get excess ear wax, as a result of ageing. It can also occur if someone has a perforated ear drum causing wax to get 'struck' in the middle ear, or wears ear plugs regularly, blocking natural migration of ear wax out of the ear.

To remove it safely, Dr Dawes suggests using a few drops of warm

olive oil every month to soften the wax and get it back on the move. You can buy ear drops that are meant to soften the ear wax. These often contain hydrogen peroxide and glycerine and sometimes preservatives which can be irritating to the skin. If in doubt, consult your GP first.

RINGING OR BUZZING NOISE

AROUND 10-15 per cent of adults in the UK will suffer from tinnitus at some point. It is the sensation of a constant noise in one or both ears when there is no obvious outside source.

‘The noise may be low, medium or high-pitched; there may be a single noise or two or more components, and it may be continuous or it may come and go,’ says ENT expert Professor Tony Wright.

The sensation can frequently be cured or made tolerable by a range of techniques including ‘masking’ devices (which are like hearing aids but play distracting sounds in the ear), Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and mindfulness — a form of meditation.

Tinnitus can be triggered by a number of factors, including agerelated hearing loss and noise-induced damage. Occasionally it’s caused just by wax pushing on the ear drum.

Glue ear (a common childhood condition when the middle ear fills with fluid), a perforated ear drum, stress or a middle-ear infection can also cause tinnitus. It can ease when the causes are treated. But, for some, it’s a lifelong condition.

‘Anything that upsets the auditory system can generate tinnitus,’ explains Professor Wright. ‘If you put normal people with normal hearing into a silent chamber, within 90 seconds they all get tinnitus, which goes away when you put them back into a normal room.

‘What is happening is that they are starting to hear the mechanism working within their own ears, in the absence of any external sound.’

When it’s related to noise damage, one possible cause is that the hair cells in the cochlea are damaged by the pummelling of sound waves. The brain then exaggerates and amplifies signals from the cochlea that are still getting through, creating the ‘ringing’ of tin- nitus. A new drug, AM-101, is being trialled and could be available within five years. It blocks the signals between the hair cells and the auditory nerve to try to stop it becoming a chronic condition.

NASTY INFECTIONS

EAR infections can muffle sounds trying to pass through the ear canal and the middle ear to the inner ear because they lead to fluid and pus build-up. This type of hearing loss, which tends to affect children more than adults, is usually temporary.

‘Most middle-ear infections in childhood, known as otitis media, are caused by a viral infection, like a cold,’ says Professor Wright. ‘These result in a build-up of mucus which can occasionally become infected by bacteria.’

Viral infections usually pass within a few days. But if symptoms persist and there is a fever and pain, see a doctor.

Inflammation of the ear canal — known as otitis externa, or swimmer’s ear — can be caused by water entering the ear canal which leads to infection.