Warning over ear clean hack
Although our ears are designed to be self-cleaning, ear-cleaning advice is currently going viral on TikTok, with videos generating millions of views on how to remove earwax yourself, using tiny tools, olive oil, and even harsh chemicals.
It’s a worrying trend, as audiologists say it’s totally unnecessary to clean your own ears, and, in turn, it could actually damage them. Our earwax is anti-bacterial, traps dust and other foreign particles, and usually drains out of the ears naturally, so just regular hair washing and gently drying the ear canal opening with a soft cloth should be all the cleaning you need to do.
Christina Kourie, a clinical audiologist at Pindrop Hearing in London, explains: “Wax will naturally work its way out of the ear canal, which can then be cleaned away.
“But there’s a trend on TikTok that involves people cleaning their ears at home via various methods, and several social media users have posted videos of themselves emptying their ears of wax using hydrogen peroxide, a chemical typically used in common household cleaning products.
“But it’s essential to approach this trend with caution as there are significant risks with putting this chemical in your ear and attempting to remove the wax with limited vision of the ear canal itself.
“Cleaning your ears at home using some of these techniques could damage your ears and hearing,” warns Kourie. “The ear is a very delicate organ, which is actually designed to clean itself.
“There’s also a risk that you could cut the inside skin of the ear if you’re scraping incorrectly, which could cause a bacterial infection.
“Our ears are very efficient in cleaning themselves and it is ironically the people who try to clean their ears who usually end up with impacted earwax. It’s natural for some people to produce more earwax than others, and they may want to remove this excess earwax. But this should always be done by a professional, to protect your ear health and hearing.
“If you want to keep ears clean on the outside, we recommend using a warm flannel to wipe around them while making sure nothing is actually inserted. You can also use certain medicated olive oil drops to soften the wax as a natural method of ear cleaning, but we’d always recommend you seek professional advice first.”
Seeing an earwax-removal specialist or trained audiologist who can remove earwax by using a syringe to irrigate the ears, or through using micro-suction, which uses gentle suction to remove excessive or troublesome earwax, is advised.