Ear Wax - Which Ear Drops are the best?
Summary
TLDRIn this informative video, ENT surgeon Vic Veer explores the wonders of earwax, its purpose, and how to manage it. He debunks common myths, like the use of cotton buds, and shares an experiment comparing different earwax removal methods, including olive oil, hydrogen peroxide, sodium bicarbonate, ear calm, and distilled water. The results highlight effective alternatives to safely and naturally dissolve earwax, emphasizing the importance of preserving the ear's natural defense mechanisms.
Takeaways
- 👂 Earwax is a natural substance made by glands in the ear canal and composed of dead skin, cholesterol, alcohols, and fatty acids.
- 🧬 There are two main genetic types of earwax: dry and flaky, common in Asian and Native American populations, and wet and darker, common in Europeans and Africans.
- 🔬 Earwax serves an important function, acting as an antibacterial and anti-fungal agent to protect the ear canal from infections.
- 🛠️ The ear's natural 'conveyor belt' mechanism moves earwax from the bottom of the ear canal to the outside, which can be disrupted by using cotton buds.
- 🚫 Using cotton buds can push earwax deeper into the ear and damage the skin, preventing the natural transport of earwax out of the ear.
- 💧 Ear drops can be an effective method for dissolving and softening earwax, allowing it to be naturally expelled from the ear.
- 👨⚕️ In some cases, professional ear cleaning methods such as micro-suction or ear syringing may be necessary to remove excessive earwax.
- 🧪 An experiment was conducted on different earwax remedies, including olive oil, hydrogen peroxide, sodium bicarbonate, ear calm, and distilled water.
- 🚫 Olive oil was found to be ineffective in dissolving earwax, and hydrogen peroxide also showed no significant effect in the experiment.
- 💡 Sodium bicarbonate and ear calm were found to be effective in dissolving earwax, but sodium bicarbonate might dry out the ear and ear calm is more expensive.
- 💧 Distilled water was surprisingly effective and inexpensive, but there are concerns about maintaining sterility over time and the risk of infection.
Q & A
What is the primary function of earwax?
-Earwax serves as a protective substance in the ear canal, composed of dead skin, cholesterol, alcohols, and long-chain fatty acids. It has antibacterial and anti-fungal properties to fight off infections and helps to trap and remove debris from the ear due to its sticky nature.
How many types of earwax are there, and what are the differences?
-There are two official types of earwax: the dry, flaky type commonly seen in Asian and Native American populations, and the wet, slightly darker type found in populations of European and African descent. However, in practice, there are more variations including the dry, crumbly, flaky type, the wet, fluffy, moist type, and the hard, fudge-like type.
Why do some people have a genetic predisposition to wet earwax and armpit odor?
-The type of earwax one has is genetically determined, and those with wet, fudge-like earwax are more likely to have armpit odor due to a genetic difference. This doesn't necessarily have any significant health implications but is an interesting fact.
What is the natural process by which earwax is transported out of the ear canal?
-The skin lining of the ear canal actively grows out of the ear, similar to a conveyor belt, moving at about 0.2 millimeters per day or 1.5 millimeters per week. This process helps to transport the earwax from the bottom of the ear canal to the outside.
Why should cotton buds be avoided when dealing with earwax?
-Cotton buds can push earwax further into the ear canal and can damage the delicate skin layer responsible for transporting earwax out. This can disrupt the natural wax removal process and lead to impaction or buildup of earwax.
What are some common reasons for excessive earwax accumulation?
-Excessive earwax can accumulate due to the use of cotton buds, narrow ear canals, aging which can cause the conchal bowl to slip forward and close up the ear hole, or post-operative changes such as a deep hole in the ear canal that prevents wax from moving out.
What are the various methods mentioned in the script for removing earwax?
-The methods include stopping the use of cotton buds, using ear drops to dissolve and soften earwax, ear syringing with water, micro suction by a professional, and in extreme cases, surgery to open up the ear canal or fill in divots.
What was the purpose of the earwax experiment conducted by Vic Veer?
-The experiment aimed to test the effectiveness of different earwax removal remedies, including olive oil, hydrogen peroxide, sodium bicarbonate, ear calm, and distilled water, on different types of earwax using a time-lapse camera.
Based on the experiment, which remedy did not work well for earwax removal?
-Olive oil and hydrogen peroxide did not show any significant effect on earwax removal in the experiment, while sodium bicarbonate, ear calm, and distilled water were more effective.
What are the potential downsides of using sodium bicarbonate for earwax removal?
-While sodium bicarbonate was effective in dissolving earwax, it is alkaline with a pH of around 8, which is higher than the natural pH of the ear canal. This could potentially increase the risk of ear infections and may cause the ear to feel dry.
What is the recommended approach to dealing with earwax based on the script?
-Avoid using cotton buds, consider using distilled water, sodium bicarbonate, or ear calm for earwax removal, and consult a healthcare professional if earwax buildup becomes problematic.
Outlines
👂 Introduction to Earwax and Its Types
Dr. Vic Veer introduces himself as an ENT surgeon and discusses the topic of earwax. He explains that earwax, while not exciting, is essential for ear health. Earwax is a waxy substance produced by glands in the ear canal, composed of dead skin cells, cholesterol, alcohols, and fatty acids. There are two main types of earwax: dry and flaky, common in Asian and Native American populations, and wet and darker, found in European and African descent populations. Dr. Veer also mentions a genetic link between earwax type and armpit odor. He details the functions of earwax, such as preventing infections and trapping debris, and describes the natural transport mechanism of earwax out of the ear.
🚫 Avoiding Cotton Buds and Causes of Excessive Earwax
The paragraph emphasizes the harm of using cotton buds in the ears, as they can damage the delicate skin and disrupt the natural wax transport mechanism. It also explores reasons for excessive earwax accumulation, such as narrow ear canals due to infections or aging, and post-operative changes. Dr. Veer explains that cotton bud use can exacerbate wax buildup by pushing wax further into the ear, and that in severe cases, medical intervention may be necessary to address the issue.
🧪 Earwax Removal Methods and Experiment
This section outlines various methods for earwax removal, discouraging the use of cotton buds and ear pins. It suggests using ear drops to dissolve earwax, ear syringing with water, and micro suction by professionals. Dr. Veer also mentions surgical options for severe cases. He then describes an experiment he conducted to test common earwax remedies, using donated earwax samples from three patients with different types of earwax. The experiment included olive oil, hydrogen peroxide, sodium bicarbonate, ear calm, and distilled water, with the aim of finding an effective and affordable earwax removal solution.
📊 Results of Earwax Dissolving Experiment
Dr. Veer presents the results of his earwax dissolving experiment. He found that olive oil and hydrogen peroxide were ineffective in removing earwax. Sodium bicarbonate performed well but might cause dryness or increase the risk of infection. Ear calm was effective and helped prevent infections but was expensive. Distilled water was the cheapest and worked as well as sodium bicarbonate, though there were concerns about sterility over time and the potential for swimmer's ear. The conclusion advises against using cotton buds and olive oil, and suggests considering distilled water, sodium bicarbonate, or ear calm for earwax removal.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Earwax
💡ENT Surgeon
💡Antibacterial
💡Transport Mechanism
💡Cotton Buds
💡Ear Drops
💡Microsuction
💡Sodium Bicarbonate
💡Ear Calm
💡Distilled Water
💡Experiment
Highlights
Earwax is a waxy substance with antibacterial and anti-fungal properties, composed of dead skin, cholesterol, alcohols, and fatty acids.
There are two main types of earwax: dry flaky type common in Asian populations and wet, darker type in European and African descent.
A genetic difference causes some people to have wet 'fudge-like' earwax, which is linked to a higher likelihood of armpit odor.
Earwax serves to fight off infections and trap debris, which is then transported out of the ear by the skin's growth.
Cotton buds can damage the ear canal and disrupt the natural wax transport mechanism.
Narrow ear canals, possibly due to age or surgery, can lead to earwax accumulation.
Various methods to remove earwax include ear drops, syringing, micro suction, and in rare cases, surgery.
An experiment was conducted to test the effectiveness of different earwax remedies using a time-lapse camera.
Olive oil and almond oil were found to be ineffective in dissolving earwax based on the experiment.
Hydrogen peroxide, commonly used in America, showed no significant effect on earwax in the conducted experiment.
Sodium bicarbonate was effective in dissolving earwax but may cause dryness and potentially increase the risk of infection.
Ear Calm, containing acetic acid, was effective in dissolving earwax and preventing infections but is more expensive.
Distilled water was found to be a cheap and effective alternative for dissolving earwax, similar to sodium bicarbonate.
The experiment showed that olive oil does not soften or dissolve earwax and is not recommended for earwax removal.
Sodium bicarbonate, despite its effectiveness, may not be ideal due to its alkaline nature which contrasts the ear's acidic pH.
Ear Calm's bubbles might aid in breaking up earwax, but its cost could be a limiting factor for some users.
Distilled water's affordability and effectiveness make it a promising option for earwax removal despite concerns about sterility.
The video concludes with recommendations against using cotton buds and for trying distilled water, sodium bicarbonate, or Ear Calm for earwax removal.
Transcripts
hi there i'm vic veer i'm a
ent or ears nose and throat surgeon and
i work at the royal national throat nose
near hospital
and i also work at queen's hospital in
romford in essex
so today i'm going to talk to you about
earwax now earwax may not sound very
exciting
but i want to tell you about what it is
what it does and then how to get rid of
it there are lots of ways of getting rid
of it
and i've done an experiment on different
types of ear drops that work on earwax
and i'd like to show you these results
with a time-lapse camera
so firstly what is earwax earwax
is a waxy substance that's made within
your ear canal by some modified sweat
glands
and earwax is composed of mostly dead
skin cholesterol alcohols and
long chain fatty acids so officially
there are two different types of earwax
there's the dry flaky one where you see
that in asian populations and
also in native americans and there's
also the
wet slightly darker version which you
see in populations from european and
african descent
in practice however most of our surgeons
know that there are a few more different
types
and broadly speaking there's the dry
crumbly flaky type of wax
then there's a sort of fluffy wet moist
type of ear wax which sort of is a bit
like a sponge or falls apart very easily
and then there's the fudge type of wax
which is quite hard you can roll up into
a ball if you really wanted to if you
felt
the need to so a little fun fact for you
because
there's two different types of earwax
it's a genetic difference
the people with a wet sort of fudge like
ear wax are more likely to have armpit
odor compared to the dry
sort of flaky type of earwax i don't
think it means anything
but it's interesting to know
so why do we have earwax well earwax
is created to fight off infections if
you imagine your ear
is a small narrow hole
inside your head it's also quite moist
in there quite warm
it's a perfect breeding ground for
infections bacteria fungi etc
so wax has a antibacterial anti-fungal
effect
on bugs within the ear canal
some of it is because of the fact of its
ph it's
slightly more acidic than the rest of
the skin
the ph is acidic at 6.1 on average
and that's similar i think to like
stomach acid when you eat things you
want to kill off the bugs
the stomach acid can kill off those bugs
and the same thing happens in the ear
the earwax itself does have other
antibacterial properties
it's all very mild but the idea is to
try and keep your ear clean
because it also is very sticky in most
people
and that stickiness if you lose
something in your ear or some dust or
some debris in your ear
it sticks to the ear wax and
by another mechanism altogether it drags
that
debris out of your ear so the way it
drags it out is that there's a transport
mechanism in your ear
the the skin lining of your ear canal
doesn't just stay still like normal skin
on your hand or on your arm or something
what it does is it actively grows out of
your ear
so if i made a little marker pen on the
inside of your
ear canal right at the bottom after a
few months if you looked in the ear
again that permanent marker
wouldn't be deep in the ear it'd come
out here somewhere so the cells are
always growing out of the ear
and that's the way it drags through the
wax as well
so what you do is you make a little bit
of wax at the bottom and then it gets
spread very thinly throughout the ear
canal
in fact a lot of people think they don't
have wax at all but if you look very
very carefully there is a very
thin layer of wax in your ear and
not being able to see wax is pretty much
a normal thing
having big globs of wax in your ear is
abnormal
so this conveyor belt of cells growing
out of your ears very very slow it's
like a travelator
and it goes at about 0.2 millimeters per
day or about one and a half millimeters
a week
so it takes about three or four months
for the wax from the bottom of your ear
canal
to come out to the outside some people
also think that
moving your jaw seems to ease the wax
out and i don't believe this is
completely true unless the wax is right
on the edge here
because if you put your finger in your
ear and try to open your mouth you do
feel
some movement of the ear canal but
actually
it's most the wax comes from deep inside
and it comes through in this conveyor
belt rather than
your jaw action so what are the reasons
for having
too much earwax well firstly i'd better
say from the start
cotton buds are the worst thing you can
do for your ears it's terrible because
most of the time all you're doing is
pushing the ear wax back into your ear
but more importantly some people use
cotton buds to scratch their ear canal
and all you're really doing is
scratching off that delicate
single layer of cells which are
transporting your wax out
and when you scratch that you damage
that con
and that conveyor belt and therefore it
stops working at that point
so the wax comes through in a thin thin
membrane
but hits this area where there is no
skin left anymore
and then starts building up in that area
because there's no way to transport that
wax out
with time however when the skin starts
growing back
it starts itching and you feel like
scratching it again so instead of
scratching again
just leave it because if you don't the
skin never gets to grow back
it's a bit like when we were children
our parents said to us stop
um picking the scabs on our elbows and
on our knees
it itches because the skin is growing
back and you want that
transport system that layer of cells to
grow back so that the wax can come out
unfortunately sometimes the mound of
wax that is accumulated in your ear
canal has got so big that the transport
system can't drag it out
and therefore it just builds up over and
over again and then people push it back
in again with the cotton bud
and the problem becomes so bad that
actually you need to have it dealt with
by a doctor or some ear drops or
something
some people get an accumulation of
earwax because their ear canals
are slightly narrow particularly on the
outside
and this could be because of lots of
infections that slowly stir nosed or
narrowed down the ear canal
so the wax can't actually get out and
get stuck
you'll see some pictures that i'm
drawing at the same time sorry if it's
quite boring
i'll try and speed up my drawing so you
don't have to watch the whole thing
another reason why your ear can now can
be narrow because as we get
older this part of your ear what we call
the conchal bowl
just here just behind the ear
ear hole that slips forward as you get
older
and as you get older and this slips
forward that closes up the ear hole
and therefore wax can't get out and
another reason why
you can have accumulation of earwax is
sometimes after an operation or if
there's a deep hole
inside your ear normally the ear canal
is just a narrow
tube but sometimes you can get this big
divot or or crater within the ear canal
and the wax can't get round the edge of
that hole
and sometimes you need to have an
operation called an obliteration
and what that does is rather than
sounding rather fancy
and dangerous all you're doing is
filling in that hole
so the earwax can grow in a straight
line and so the operations for dealing
with earwax
are related to making the ear hole look
or the ear canal looking as normal as
possible
so the wax can make its way out without
getting stuck at any
any points so how does one get rid of
earwax
now there are lots of things you can do
the first thing you can do is just
stop using cotton buds or ear pins or
whatever you use
hairpins to pull out earwax it just
doesn't work and all you're doing is
damaging the ear canal and
damaging that transport system that
pulls the wax out
you can use ear drops and that's quite
useful for
dissolving and softening the earwax so
it just falls out naturally
then the next thing you can do is see
someone who will syringe your ear
and all that is is using water to flush
out the ear wax from inside you
so it comes out with the sort of flow of
pressure of the water
now an awful lot of doctors in the uk
the family doctors particularly
aren't doing syringing anymore although
it used to be done for many many years
and that's because people are worried
that blasting water in the ear may
damage the eardrum it's quite rare but
can happen
now another way for removing wax is to
use
micro suction micro suction is a tiny
little
vacuum cleaner hoover that goes into
your ear
and hooves up or cleans up the um the
wax
now i'm not going to do a video about
that it's quite
it's an involved thing but i'll try and
make another one in the future
but it's probably in a good pair of
hands it's probably the safest way to
get rid of earwax
and lastly in very extreme cases people
sometimes need surgery
that's either to open up a narrowing in
the ear canal to let the wax come out
naturally
or to fill in any of those divots i was
telling you about earlier
so often the big question i have from
patients is which
ear drop should i be using now
rather than me just telling you what i
think i thought i'd do an experiment
what i did was i found three different
patients
and they kindly donated their earwax to
me
i made sure there are three different
types of earwax one was the flaky
crumbly type
one was the wet moist type and one was
the fudge sort of
roll up into a ball type and they kindly
donated their earwax and i put them into
about five
test tubes so i want to say thank you
very much to those patients you
all three of you know who you are and um
you can see it's been used for a good
cause
it's an experiment and it's research
study and what i did was i looked
through the internet and looked at the
the most common remedies for earwax now
the first one i found was
olive oil lots of people seem to use
olive oil some people also said almond
oil but i tried that separately and i
found that almond oil and olive oil were
exactly the same
so i just used olive oil because
everyone seems to use olive oil
it's quite cheap to come by now i also
got some
hydrogen peroxide which is commonly
prescribed in america
not so much in this country and i can
sometimes worry about the
the amount of free radicals that are
produced from hydrogen peroxide it may
damage the hearing or balance apparatus
in the ear
but um it must be safe because hundreds
and millions of people must have used
hydro peroxide for earwax
so i don't use it i tend to use
something called sodium bicarbonate
which i think works very well so i've
tried that in my third bottle and i'll
show you these soon as well
now the only problem with sodium
bicarbonate i think
is that it is alkali so the opposite of
acid
and so what i'm slightly worried about
is that it may be
may give you an increased risk of
getting an ear infection
because without the acid in your ear you
may get something called swimmer's ear
and swimmers tend to swim all the wax
comes out there they tend to get
infections because all the acid is
neutralized
and sodium bicarbonate has a ph of
around about eight
uh where you want the ear canal to have
a ph of around about
six so i slightly worried about that but
i put it down as one of my
options in my test tube test tube number
three now
test tube number four is ear calm now
ear calm is a remedy for people
who have got an ear infection
but don't really need to have
antibiotics i often use ear calm to get
rid
of very mild infections and that's some
of the guidelines we have in this
country from the ent
uk guidelines about very mild infections
called otitis externa and you can use
ear calm which is just basically an acid
it's very similar to vinegar acetic acid
and it has a ph of roughly about six as
well and i thought well why not try it
so i've tried in my fourth bottle ear
calm
sorry the other good thing about ear
calm
is that you can use it to prevent you
from getting an infection
so for example the swimmers i know an
awful lot of olympic swimmers
who after they've gone for a swim they
spray their ears
with ear calm so that you replace the
acid in your ears
that way you can avoid getting infection
because you've washed out all the acid
now most of these remedies
are approximately between four to ten
pounds each
so what i really wanted to do apart from
the olive oil obviously but what i want
to do
is come up with a very cheap alternative
so what i did was i found some steam
distilled water
and i wanted to use that as well again
the ph of distilled water
as long as it's steamed distilled water
is about 6.0
so very close to ear wax levels so i
want to use that as well it's very very
cheap you can get a bottle of about this
big
for about a liter and a half
for about five to six pounds now you'll
soon see that
watching wax dissolve on the the video
behind me
is um incredibly boring i never you
realize how boring watching
uh wax dissolve could be so what i did
was
i tried to use a time lapse on my
on this camera that i'm using right now
and the idea is i take a picture every
five
seconds or then every five minutes
trouble is
it was going so slowly that my battery
would just run out and so
it's a little bit uh higgledy-piggledy
the um
the i'm taking the photos from time to
time
uh and you'll notice if you look at the
video that actually most of the
action occurs in the first 24 hours
so the first few first few time lapse
camera
movies it goes quite quickly at the
start but then
becomes very boring i carried on
checking the
wax for about five to six days
so remember there is ten mils in each of
these
uh test tubes each with a different
remedy starting off with olive oil
hydrogen peroxide sodium bicarbonate ear
calm and distilled water
and you can see that every so often i
shook the test tubes around just to give
it a little nudge to see if i can get
any movement out of it
and i shut them all the same amount and
you can see that
there's a big difference between the
different remedies i've got there for
you
now firstly the olive oil as you can see
even after
five days nothing happened made no
difference whatsoever
and you can see this and also in the
research studies if you look to the
research studies about earwax
olive oil seems to do absolutely nothing
to earwax
they say it softens it you know i've
seen people
go away try olive oil come back and me
try and clean it is it's exactly the
same as it was before
so personally i wouldn't recommend olive
oil ever it does
nothing i was somewhat surprised by
hydrogen peroxide i thought that would
do something
but it seems not to have done anything
at all it uh
perhaps i had a slightly different
hydrogen peroxide than what the
american physicians would use but again
i saw very little change in the hydrogen
peroxide
it did seem to rise and it seems like
those two layers
to this formulation there was like a
watery layer and an oil layer
at the top but again nothing really
moves and i couldn't really shake it
either
so i can't recommend this formulation of
hydrogen peroxide either so sodium
bicarbonate thankfully
was much better you can see that it's
slowly breaking up the wax
um and in the end of five days it's
almost completely
um dissolved most of the wax still the
fudge type of wax you can see there's a
little spot there
was the most resistant of all of them
and that makes sense because it's it's
the most dense
version of earwax but the
um the flaky type of earwax disappeared
very quickly
and actually so did the wet fluffy type
of earwax
so the only problem with sodium
bicarbonate which i've hear from people
is that it becomes very drying in the
air people don't particularly like using
sodium bicarbonate in the ear
and so that's a thing against using
sodium bicarbonate even though it works
very well
for dissolving earwax now if you look at
the
ear calm version which is the fourth
test tube along you can see that it
becomes
it starts off very very cloudy like a
colloid in there
and shaking it around you can barely see
through it
but i saw if i looked it very carefully
that
apart from the fudge type of earwax it
seemed to dissolve the wax very quickly
so it's quite useful it helps prevent
infections
whilst also dissolving earwax i think
it's great it is quite expensive though
i think it cost approximately 20 pounds
for 10 mils
so it's a lot more expensive than sodium
bicarbonate which is roughly about four
pounds
um and then i go on to distilled water
you can see distilled water the number
five
test tube again work very well similar
to i think
as sodium bicarbonate near calm and it's
a lot cheaper
swishing it around it seemed to do
great things and flush out or dissolve
the earwax very well
slightly worrying i thought to myself
later that although it's sterile when
you first
open it trying to go through a whole
bottle of this stuff with time
it's unlikely to be sterile for very
long so although it's cheaper you
probably
unless you're using a whole bottle uh
it's
probably not the best idea and also this
is swimmer's ear officially
there is a chance of you getting an
infection
now like i said ear calm is a ph of
about six
so is um distilled water so i suspect
that it should be safe but there is no
trial of anyone putting
distilled water in their ear but the
research
studies that show that distilled water
works very well so in summary
the olive oil i think did absolutely
nothing and i would not
bother with it at all the hydrogen
peroxide
rather strangely did nothing either
so i can't recommend that based on this
experiment
the sodium bicarbonate worked
brilliantly however there is that chance
of causing infection
and it can also dry your ear um ear calm
i thought worked very well they had
those little bubbles in there as well
uh had those little bubbles in there as
well that seemed to help
um maybe to breaking up the ear wax
but it's quite expensive distilled water
is by far the cheapest
um and seem to work just as well as
sodium bicarbonate
i've never had any problems of people
saying to me oh the
ear can made my ear feel very dry so it
may be that
flushing out all the wax and the acid
seems to make your ear feel
dry it doesn't like a an alkaline
environment likes an acid environment
at least that's what i'm hoping so the
take home messages are
don't use cotton buds because you're
destroying the the transport system in
your ear
try and avoid olive oil i don't think it
works at all
use perhaps distilled water sodium
bicarbonate or ear calm to dissolve your
wax
because the others seem not to do
anything um
thank you very much for watching this
video i hope you found it useful
if you could please like this video and
subscribe to my channel that'll really
help me
um thanks again
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