Is Ear Cleaning Necessary?

Few things divide opinion more than ear cleaning. Some say you absolutely need to clean your ears regularly if they’re to stay healthy, while others say you should never clean them at all. So, who’s right?

Is ear cleaning really necessary? The short answer is no. However, this doesn’t mean that you should never ever clean your ears. To help you better understand things, we’ve created this short post that explains ear cleaning in more detail.

Do you need to clean your ears regularly?

No, you don’t need to clean your ears at regular intervals. The simple reason for this is that your ears will clean themselves. Earwax isn’t there for fun, it serves a pretty vital purpose. It’s used to line the ear canal and remove any debris or harmful substances that enter it. Basically, it almost acts as a filter to get rid of the bad stuff that might enter our ears.

Any audiologist can tell you that removing the natural production of wax from your ears will result in more infections and problems for your middle and inner ear. Ear cleaning isn’t something you should schedule into your regular bodily maintenance routine! In most cases, you don’t have to clean your ears at all – other than maybe wiping away wax that’s snuck outside your ear canal and is just lying at the opening.

When should you clean your ears?

If ear cleaning isn’t necessary, does that mean you should never ever clean your ears? Ideally, you shouldn’t have to. However, this isn’t always the case for some people. While earwax is good, you may make too much of it. If this happens to you, then your ears become clogged up with impacted wax that can harden. In this situation, you need to undergo ear cleaning.

Impacted wax can cause symptoms such as ear pain, infections, discharge, ringing in the ears, itching, and hearing loss. If you suffer from any of these things, then you may need to clean your ears. The safest way to do this at home if by softening the wax with olive oil drops. But, if this doesn’t work, then you need to see an audiologist for professional ear cleaning. They can use manual instruments and other tools to soften and remove the impacted wax for you.

So, is ear cleaning necessary?

In summary, ear cleaning isn’t necessary for most of the population. If you create a healthy amount of earwax, then you’ve got nothing to worry about. It’s only necessary to clean your ears if you generate too much wax or have impacted earwax in your ear canal. Here, you’re advised to try home methods – which don’t include using cotton buds as these are not going to clean your ears, they’ll just make things worse! If the home treatments don’t work, then you should call an audiologist and ask them to examine your ears. From here, they’ll prescribe professional ear cleaning treatments if required.

Our advice is to speak to an audiologist if you’re worried about whether or not you should clean your ears. All it takes is a short appointment to determine if you’re making too much earwax or not. In general, most people will be fine, and you won’t need to clean your ears.