Ear Candling For Ear Wax Removal – Is It Effective?

Each ear has a canal that produces oil called earwax or cerumen in medical terms. This earwax, actually, protects your ear from dust, foreign particles, and from microbes trying to get inside your ear.

But sometimes, build up of this wax can sometimes cause serious ear problems. It can harden and block the ear canal and may cause more serious damage to the ear.

When this happens, you have to seek medical attention as soon as possible.

To  prevent problems, you need to get rid of earwax safely by using proven methods. There is one procedure which subject to lots of debate, and it is… Ear Candling.

Ear Candling — auricular candling, ear coning, or simply candling — is a therapeutic procedure used by most people in removing earwax.

The candle used is not the common candle you usually lit and use.

The ear candle is made of unbleached linen or cotton soaked in beeswax, paraffin wax or soy wax. The wax-soaked fabric is then rolled into a tapered tube at different length, averaging about a foot long.

How It’s Done

1. First, the practitioner will ask you to lie on your side. He then uses something, like a paper plate to protect your outer ear and face from possible drop of a melted wax.
2. Then, he will gently insert the tapered end of the candle into your ear canal at a 90 degree angle from the ear and lit.
3. For 10 -15 minutes, you will hear the crackling sound of the burning candle. The practitioner will then cut the end of the candle with earwax collected every two inches or so.
4. When it is four inches of the candle is left, it is then remove from the ear and blown out.
5. Turn over and repeat with the other ear.

How It Supposedly Works

The burning candle will create a vacuum as the smoke enters the ear canal. It will then soften the wax, loosening debris trapped in the ear.

The smoke seeps through the eardrum and dissolves mucus and other impurities in the sinus passages. The impurities then are collected in the unburned part of the candle.

Is it effective?

Before, health practioners performed candling as a way to relax their patient’s senses and to create calmness, not to remove earwax.

But later, many claimed that it improves their sense of hearing and smelling.  Some also testified that they were relieved from their headaches, tinnitus and vertigo.

Besides positive claims, other health experts in most countries prohibit the use of this procedure because of various serious injuries associated like burns, punctured eardrums, and impacted candle wax in the ear canal which would require surgery.

What are other alternatives to ear candling?

Remember, you don’t need to clean your ears always, but if the need arises, choose the safest way. There are many ways to remove earwax:

1. Use olive oil or mineral oil to soften your earwax. Just drop at least 2-3 drops into your affected ear, then wait at least 10-15 minutes and shower.
2. Moisturize your outer ear with mineral oil each day or as necessary to prevent too much earwax because of dry outer ear.
3. You can use vinegar and alcohol mixture. Simply use rubber syringe to expel the mixture into your ear canal. Do it gently. Lie for 5 minutes, then rinse your ear canal thoroughly.
4. Increase your omega-3 by eating foods rich in omega-3 and by taking organic omega-3 supplements.
5. Nothing beats doctors expertise in earwax removal. It is relatively simple and safe method