Earwax: Too Much of a Good Thing?
August 30th, 2008 | by admin |Aug. 29, 2008 — The body is a miraculous mechanism. Consider the once-lowlyearwax. People used to try to remove it. Now, we now know that earwax has a jobto do.
Think of it kind of like the oil in your car, except it doesn’t ever have tobe changed.
Earwax is created by a mixture of secretions from glands that line the earcanal, sloughed-off skin cells, and bits of hair.
It acts as a cleaning agent, which also protects and lubricates part of thesensitive ear canal.
Normally, excess wax eases its way out of your ear without any prompting onyour part, helped along by the movement of your jaw.
That’s when it can be cleaned out a bit, but it’s advised that you not golooking for it and only clean out earwax once it emerges on its own.
So, although earwax is essentially good, too much of it can causeproblems.
The American Academy of Otolaryngology — Head and Neck Surgery Foundationare releasing the national guidelines to help clinicians recognize earwaxbuildup, find the best ways to remove earwax, and deal with patients whenearwax becomes a problem. The guidelines do not apply to earwax impactionrelated to certain conditions, such as skin diseases of the ear.
The clinical term for earwax is cerumen.
“Approximately 12 million people a year in the U.S. seek medical carefor impacted or excessive cerumen,” according to news release comments fromRichard Rosenfeld, MD, who led the Guideline Development Task Force.
He says nearly 8 million cerumen-removal procedures are performed yearly byhealth care professionals. “Developing practical clinical guidelines forphysicians to understand the harm vs. benefit profile of the intervention wasessential,” Rosenfeld says.
The panel that created the guidelines was drawn from a pool of specialistsin audiology, family medicine, geriatrics, internal medicine, nursing,surgeons, and pediatrics.
Here are some of the guidelines’ highlights:
- The panel made a “strong” recommendation that doctors should”treat” impacted earwax when it causes symptoms or gets in the way ofan examination.
Symptoms of too much earwax:
- Pain, itching of the ear, ringingof the ears (tinnitus), or hearing loss.
How do professionals remove it? One way is with irrigation, gently lettingwater wash out the excess wax.
- It is also recommended that doctors get into the habit of asking patientsabout their earwax history.
- People with hearing aids are advised to get checked regularly for ear waxbuildup. This can help maintain hearing aid function and lower risk of damageto the hearing aid.
- It is “strongly advised” that people not use cotton swabs or earcandling to clean earwax on their own.
- Those who are high-risk for impacted earwax are advised to get checkedevery 6- to 12 months for routine cleaning.
In prepared comments, the panel’s lead author Peter Roland, MD, said,”The complications from cerumen impaction can be painful and ongoing,including infections and hearing loss.”
He added, “It is hoped that these guidelines will give clinicians thetools they need to spot an issue early and avoid serious outcomes.”
The guidelines are published in the September issue of Otolarynology-Headand Neck Surgery.
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